Infinite Stratos Elite
by ISWarhawk
Summary: Project K.A.I; Future Genetic's prized experiment, but when he decides he doesn't want to live as a test subject anymore, being the only male IS Pilot existence, escapes to IS Academy. Read as Kai rises through the ranks of the IS Elite to gain respect from his classmates, discovers love & power and defends his friends & IS Academy against Future Genetics' malicious schemes.
1. New Beginnings

**IS Elite**

"This is it, a new start, a new me" Kai thought to himself as the monorail quickly powered along the rails headed towards IS academy. He never dreamed of actually being here, but due to life circumstances this was his only choice, to be safe.

I'm getting ahead of myself, let me explain; Kai is no ordinary boy, he is what you could call a "test tube baby" he was genetically engineered to be able to pilot an IS (Infinite Stratos) and revolutionise the world, because for years, since the IS was developed by genius Tabane Shinonono, only females have been able to use them.

But Kai disagreed with this, he didn't want to be part of any master plan, he just wanted to be a normal boy, with a normal life and normal family, but with his childhood ripped from him, he decided to take action. One day during a training exercise, he used his own IS personally built for him to escape, and he ran, faster than he's done before. It wasn't long before he found the city, and learned of the IS academy, using an internet café, he read that "The students within this Academy, while they are enrolled, do not belong to any county, organization or group" this is it, his chance for freedom, to live a normal life.

So that's how he found himself on the monorail, after a few emails with the Academy admin, they where curious to see if he was telling the truth, so they sent him a 1 day pass to the Academy for an interview.

"If this is an all girls school, I'm going to stick out like a saw thumb" he said under his breath, catching the attention of a girl sitting in the row next to him, she thought it was strange that a boy his age was heading to the Academy.

"Who's that? I wasn't aware we'd be having a guy come to the Academy today" She thought with a raised brow, obviously focusing to hard, because during all her concentrating she didn't notice Kai had turned to see her making weird thinking faces him.

"Uh, are you ok? Is there something on my face?" He asked her, in a slight annoyed tone.

"Oh no, it's nothing, I uh, thought I saw something outside but it's nothing seriously" turning redder than a tomato, the strange girl sunk into her seat with embarrassment covering her like a heavy blanket.

"We'll be arriving at IS Academy soon, please make sure you have all of your belongings before exiting the Monorail, have a nice day" said a male voice over the speakers.

Kai, coming from the lab forgot to take some clothes with him before he broke out, so for the past couple weeks he'd been wearing the same jeans and black t-shirt, so he had no luggage, but he could see the girl he was talking to earlier had a few too many bags to carry, he saw her struggle before falling over, he ran out to the isle to help her, only to be greeted with a clear view up her skirt, turning a bright red, he shielded eyes asking if she was ok.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just have a few too many clothes I couldn't leave at home this semester"

" 'This semester' so she's a regular student here, huh?" He thought.

"Would you like a hand? It looks like you could use it" He said holding a hand out to her.

"Yeah thanks, I'm Houki by the way" She said with a thankful smile.

"I'm Kai, nice to meet you" he said conveying the same emotion

"Which are the heaviest bags you've got?"

"Uh, these two here" Houki Replied

Kai didn't look that strong, but where he was made to be the best, he had 3x the strength of any strong 17 year old, and with no problem he hoisted one of her luggage bags on his shoulder, and carried the other with the handle. Houki looked at him with a think blushing red descending on her face, she always admired the strong, I'll come and save you types.

"Shall we go then?" Kai said with a smile

It took Houki a while to snap out of her daze staring at Kai before she realised what he said "Uh, um yes l..lets go" She managed "Where are you headed?"

"I need to go see the head master, I have an interview to enrol here"

The news hit Houki like a brick wall, a _boy_ is enrolling at IS Academy, so many questions where rushing through her mind, all of which she told herself she'd ask later, _if_ she saw him again.

"Uh yeah, I can take you there, no problem" She said sticking her thumb up right in Kai's face.

"That's great, but first lets get these bags to your.. Dorm I assume you have here?" He said with a confused tone.

"Yeah, that big building over there has all of the rooms we share, it's usually 2 people per room, but on there rare occasion 3 people stay in one room" Houki replied, feeling like a tour guide.

"Oh that's pretty cool, I wonder who I'll get to be with, I hope it's someone nice like you" Kai said with a big smile.

Houki had to turn away as her face turned bright red, she could usually keep her cool in situations like this, why should this be any different?

"Right, anyway enough standing around, time to go to my room!" She exclaimed, only just realising how bad that could have sounded.

Kai followed Houki up and down stairs, along hallways, and through countless buildings, it felt like an eternity before they got to her room, room 705.

"Well, we're here, you can you just leave my bags here if you lik-"

"Oh no, I might as well just take them in for you, it's the least I could do, after all, you're helping me"

Houki was nervous because she didn't know if Lin, her room mate was in, she usually skipped class and she really didn't know how to explain it if she was in, but either way, Kai wouldn't take no for an answer to she had to chance it, she took hold of the door knob, and with a sigh, slowly opened it, Kai entered first with Houki close behind.

With a quick inspection of the room, Lin was nowhere in sight, which was good for her, as Kai put the luggage on the floor, the bathroom door swung open and a towel covered Lin jumped out at Houki, covering her in water and bubbles, clearly she just got out the bath.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING LIN?!" she shouted, horrified at what is happening.

"OH HOUKI, I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH, I'VE BEEN SO BORED WITHOUT YO-" her sentence was cut off quickly as she stiffly turned her head to see Kai stood there, half scared and shocked at what was unfolding in front of him.

Lin slowly turned her head back to a nervously laughing Houki and breathed in...

"Houki... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING, BRING A BOY, _A BOY _INTO OUR ROOM, NOT EVEN OUR ROOM, INTO IS ACADEMY, ARE YOU INSANE, HAVE YOU FINALLY LOST IT?"

Lin's face had gone so red from anger that you could barely make out facial features, but with everything going on, Lin hadn't realised her towel had dropped leaving her completely naked, so utterly embarrassed she screamed and ran back into the bathroom crying.

"Ugh, I'll deal with that later" Houki said face-palming, she looked over to Kai to see he'd passed out with blood running down his nose, she walked over and slapped him in the face bringing him back to reality.

"You didn't see anything, _did you"_ she said with a stern tone, leaning over him.

"Oh, I..I didn't see anything, I promise" Kai cleared his throat "Shall we get going to the Principle's office?"

"Indeed, lets getting going!" Houki grabbed Kai's hand and led him out of the room, he could hear Lin crying as he walked past, he definitely wanted to make up for it, but couldn't right now.

Again, after following Houki in silence for what seemed like forever, the arrived at the head masters door, for the whole day he didn't feel it, but Kai was hit with waves of nervousness, this was his last resort to live away from the people that wanted him captured, and to live a normal life.

"Well, good luck Kai, I'm sure you'll knock em' dead... Not literally I mean, our head master is a real badass"

Just what he wanted to hear, making it even harder for him to contain how nervous he was, Kai took a deep breath and put his hand on the door knob, closing his eyes.

"Uh Kai" Houki said in a small voice, completely breaking his focus "Why are you here? You're a boy, and boys can't use IS, it makes no sense!"

Kai smiled a little and turned "Look, if this goes well and I get in, I'll tell you anything you want to know, ok?"

"Hmm, ok, good luck!" And before she even knew she was doing it, her arms flew around Kai's waist and pulled him close for a hug, her large breasts pushing against his chest, Kai's cheeks turned a dark shade of red.

"And uh.. thanks for helping me today, I don't know where I'd be without you"

Kai didn't really know what to do, he'd been in solitude all of his life, never before had he been a situation like this, so he did what he thought was right and started with..

"Uh, yeah I'm glad I could help, that's what I do... but your boobs, uh they're really big and they're touching me, and I uh- I mean, It's not I don't like them, it's just-"

Kai thought he was going well but before he could say anything else Houki pulled away, and a hand full of hurt came landing on the side of his face, making him take a few steps back out of shock.

"Look, just... do well in there and we'll talk later kay? C'ya".

Houki turned on her heel and stomped off, leaving Kai in a daze, he shook his head to regain his focus, looking up on the clock on the wall he was 3 minutes late to his appointment with the head master.

"Right, ok... you can do this Kai, just chill, answer the questions and you're in".

He took hold of the door knob, and walked in, the cold air of the room brushed his face, it was so nice on a warm day such as today.

"Ah, you must be Kai, step in and take a seat would you, we have much to discuss".


	2. Introducing Kai Hollow

**IS Elite Chapter 2**

Kai was more nervous than ever, his entire life's future was depending on this interview, of course, he had no experience in this situation so it'd be a challenge and an experience for him.

"So, Kai... You have no last name?" The lady asked.

Already Kai was stumped, how did he over look such a simple detail? His mind was racing and he could feel the sweat starting to form, with trembling lips he tried..

"U-uh well th-the thing is.." he managed before being cut off.

"The thing is, I find it quite strange that someone has no last name, almost as if the name is... empty? Wouldn't you say?" she said challengingly

Empty... that word cut Kai like a knife, empty? Am I empty? He thought, being genetically made, he had no childhood, no friends, no family... nothing, almost like being...

"Hollow, my name is Kai Hollow, I choose not to tell people my last name as I don't like it much" He managed with a crooked, painful smile.

With a raised eyebrow the lady replied.

"Well, Mr Hollow, my name is Chifuyu Orimura, but you are to refer to me as Miss Orimura only, do you understand?"

Kai felt the impact of her words as he could only manage a slight nod to indicate his acknowledgement.

"Now, as we all know, men can't pilot an IS, but what makes you so special? Why is it _you_ can pilot one and not some idiot down the street?" Chifuyu said, not removing the lock between hers and Kai's eyes.

"Great, how can I pass this one off? Do I just tell her straight up what happened? Or can I just lie?" he thought to himself, he couldn't keep her waiting anymore, he could tell she has a very short fuse, and the last thing he wanted to do was piss off the head master.

"Well, it's quite a funny story" He started with a little laugh, still Chifuyu wasn't laughing.

"It was a summer holiday and me and a couple of friends where doing the usual kid things, going places we shouldn't and stuff like that, and we came across an old warehouse in the middle of the forest, and in there was an old IS, covered in vines and rust, and where I was the oldest, my friends dared me to go over and touch it, so after some arguing I went over and touched it, and that's when it happened".

"What happened exactly?" Chifuyu was now leaning forward resting her chin on her hand, clearly interested in the story "please go on" she insisted.

"Well at first there was a really bright light, and the next thing I knew I was woke up and it was night time, and the IS was.. on me, like.. I could control it and everything".

"Is that so..." Chifuyu said, standing up and turning to the window.

"So how did you get that personal IS?" she said not turning.

How did she know? Did she guess? Did she figure it out as soon as she entered the room?

Kai reached up and touched the tags around his neck on a chain, his tags from the lab had his IS data built in, so wherever he went, he had it with him, there was no way of lying about having his own IS, she had already sussed him, but he had to think of a reason to not let his past slip out.

"Uh, it was a gift from a friend, I told him about the incident in the forest, and he said he could get me my own IS, so after about a week, he returned with these tags" he said quite bluntly, almost running out of ideas, he couldn't keep the lie up for much longer.

"I see, and do you mind if I take a look at them?" Chifuyu said turning and holding her hand out.

Kai was hesitant at first, but surely she wouldn't know, they looked like normal tags, it had his name, but just Kai, on it, with a bunch of random number codes, and a little FG printed with great detail in the bottom corner, with other tag was blank, and completely smooth, this one contained his IS.

He reached round the back of his neck and unclipped the chain and hesitantly handed it across, Chifuyu snatched it from him with precision and began to examine it, she took no interest in his detailed tag, only the plain smooth tag, until the little FG caught her eye.

Chifuyu's eyes tightened, focusing, trying to remember.

"Where have I seen these initials before? Why are they so familiar?" she thought to herself.

With a little sigh, she clenched the tags and closed her eyes, she'd made up her mind.

She looked up at Kai, his eyes full of confusion, she opened her top draw to her large oakwood desk, placing his tags inside and said.

"Ok, I've made my decision, I shall let you attend IS Academy, but I will be keeping hold of your IS for now, you shall receive it tomorrow during your entrance exam, everyone here takes them, and since you're going to be starting now, you will need to take it to see where in the school we will be placing you, in regards to where you will be staying, room 703 seems adequate for you, although most people who have stayed there before have found it difficult to live with the other person, lets see if you're any different".

Kai's eyes up lit up like lights on Christmas, his heart was pumping furiously, his life, his freedom and been guaranteed, he shot straight out of his chair grabbing Chifuyu's hand shaking it vigorously chanting thank you over and over, this is where his new life could begin. He kicked the door open and started running through hallways, up and down stairs, but after a while he realised he was completely and utterly lost, he took a second to catch his breathe and started looking around for someone to help him, until someone caught his eye.

The girls long blonde hair waved freely in the wind, bouncing up and down with every step, and the light from the fading sun shining reflecting off her locks flawlessly, Kai was truly taken back by the sight, but this is no time to be gawking at women, he needed directions and quick.

"Uh, excuse me miss, I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of room 703, I'm new he-" is all he could get out before a barrage of words came hurtling his way.

"EXCUSE ME! HOW DARE YOU GREET ME, CECILIA ALCOTT IN SUCH A COMMONER MANOR, HAVE YOU NO SHAM-" Cecilia managed before turning to him, never before had she seen such a scruffy, yet handsome young man, true his jeans and shirt were old and tattered, but the way the sun bounced of his long brown hair made Cecilia weak to the knees, it left her completely speechless.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you in any way, I was just wondering how to get to my room seeing as I'm new here" Kai said in a soft tone.

"Ahem, I should be the one saying sorry, I didn't mean to start with such a violent outburst, but us Alcott's are used to be treated with the utmost respect, and I wouldn't expect any less from you... no matter how dashing you look" Cecilia started getting quiet near the end of the sentence making Kai step closer just to hear what she was saying.

"What was that? I didn't seem to catch that last part" he said with a smile.

"Oh nothing, nothing!" Cecilia waved here hands in panic with her cheeks turning a hot red.

"So, you wanted to get to room, 703 was it? I can take you right there, as I'm heading that way myself!"

Cecilia was so overcome with infatuation that she didn't even acknowledge there was a boy saying that he's starting in IS Academy.

"Alright cool, maybe we can get to know each other better, I don't have any friends here, apart from a girl I met earlier, Houki I believe her name was" Kai said looking around trying to think.

"Houki Shinonono?! Competition eh? Well as said in the history books, we Alcott's never back down from a challenge, no matter how dirty it may get" Cecilia thought to herself.

"Come come, uh.. what was your name again? I don't think I got it" She asked.

"Oh, just call me Kai" he said with a smile.

"Oh Kai, why do you make me feel this way? Never before has a man made my loins burn for them, what makes you so much different?!" Cecilia thought to herself again, her eyes closed and face turning red, letting out small moans just thinking about him.

Kai walked over and lent in face to face with the strange acting girl.

"Uh Cecilia right? Are you ok? Your face is all red? Are you ill?"

This stopped Cecilia right in her tracks, what had she done? She has lost her composure in front of a commoner, she could never live this down, this day will certainly haunt her for the rest of her days.

"Oh my goodness gracious me, would you look at the time, I guess we should get back to our rooms now, come come don't fall behind now" She rushed, before turning and almost sprinting away from Kai, she couldn't bare to be face to face with him, not after what just happened in the hallway, but she was going to keep her promise and make sure Kai got to his room.

After going down a few flights of stairs, they arrived at a hallway with only 3 doors, and at the other end was another flight of stairs, no other rooms where in sight.

"I've been here before, this is where Houki's room is, with that other girl, Lin I think her name was" Kai thought to himself.

The first door the passed was Houki's room, number 705, continuing down the hall was room 704, Cecilia's room.

"Well, here we are... my room" She turned gracefully on the spot.

"Well, yeah I guess so" Kai said nervously with his hand behind his head.

"You know, I wouldn't mind a little token of gratitude, you know, for helping you out today" Cecilia said looking at the floor, cheeks a light shade of peach.

"Oh really, like what? I can cook pretty well if you, like I could-" Kai was stopped in his tracks by an angry faced Cecilia.

"No you utter moron! I don't want your stupid meal, or anything ridiculous like that, why couldn't you be a real gentleman and offer me a kiss on the hand, or at least the cheek!" Cecilia's face had gone redder than anything, and you could practically feel the hate emanating from her.

This sudden outburst surprised Kai, isn't that what women like? Men who can cook and look after themselves? All his time being stuck in the lab, Kai picked up many traits that would make some men's abilities look like child's play.

Cecilia in all her rage, turned, stomped into her room, and slamming the door in Kai's face. He let out a small sigh.

"I guess all that's left is to check out my room, I wonder what my room mate is going to be like? I hope they're pretty cool".

Kai knocked on the door a couple times, but no answer, maybe they where out? He let himself in, his room was... well like every other room he'd seen, two beds to the left, a desk on the right, with a little kitchen and a small bathroom.

He started into the room, when the bathroom door behind him slid open, it made him jump straight into the centre of the room, turning he saw a small angry looking girl, with beautifully shimmering long silver hair and an eye patch wearing shorts and a long baggy t-shirt, Kai was taken back by her appearance and how beautiful she was.

"And who might you be?" Asked the girl in a defensive yet curious tone.

Kai had never heard a German Accent before, he found quite mesmerizing, shaking off the effects her accent had on him, he said.

"Oh hi, I'm Kai, I'm your new room mate it seems".

"But, you're a boy? Why would a boy be in IS Academy when everyone knows males can't pilot an IS? Unless..."

"Yep, I can pilot IS too" He said rubbing his arm keeping his eye attention to the floor, trying not to seem too big headed.

"So, show me, show me your IS" She said crossing her arms staying sceptical.

"Uh, the thing is.. I can't not till tomorrow anyway, Headmaster took mine away until my entrance exam tomorrow" he said disappointingly.

"What's your name by the way?" He asked

"Huh?" The question caught her off guard "My name is Laura Bodewig, it's nice to meet you"

She extended her hand for a handshake, which was a surprise, but also refreshing for Kai as the other girls he had met that day wanted to hug and have their hands kissed, he took it with gusto and was quite surprised to feel Laura had quite a hard handshake.

"Well, I want a shower, through there right?" As he pointed at the bathroom door.

"Yep, you'll find everything you need in there" she replied.

Kai entered the room, it was quite spacious, a lot bigger than it looked from the outside, but the walls where decorated pink with flowers, what would you expect from an all girls school? He took of his shirt and trousers, kicked off his old shoes and stepped into the shower, the hot water running down is body felt so refreshing. He picked up the soap and began to wash, only slowing when he got to his stomach, of which was covered in scars, as well as his back from all the experiments, his mind turned to that day, the day he escaped, but now... he's free to live a normal life, to be someone.

He let out a deep sigh when he felt something on his back, fingers it seemed, tracing his scars on his back. He slowly turned around to see Laura, in the shower with him... naked.

His nose exploded with blood before he started shouting at her..

"LAURA WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU KNEW I WAS IN HERE!" 

"Well, back when I was being trained I showered with men and women alike, it saves water, plus you can scrub each others back, speaking of which could you?" She said as she turned around showing her bare bottom to him, making Kai's nose explode once more.

"NO I CANNOT, LOOK, I-IM GETTING OUT NOW, GHEEZ" Kai stormed out in a huff, he lay on his bed with the towel around his waste, barely concealing the bulge downstairs after seeing Laura naked.

"It's not all bad I suppose, I mean, she's not the tallest girl, but man she is cute" He thought to himself blushing a strong red, the images of Laura's naked body rolled around in his mind over and over.

"I need to get some sleep to clear my mind of things, I can't just keep thinking about Laura" He also thought, so he climbed into his bed after putting on his now clean underwear, the pillow was so soft, and the bed made all his aches and pains just vanish.

Laura came in from the bathroom wearing what looked like a swimming uniform, so Kai had to ask.

"Is that what you sleep in? It seems kind of strange.."

She quickly returned with..

"It's what I'm comfortable with, who are you to judge you ass?"

"Hey, just trying to make conversation" he said annoyingly.

"Uh Kai, can I ask you something" Laura asked in a cute yet playful tone.

"Yeah go for it" He said turning to her to her bed to meet her eye to eye.

"Why did you get embarrass about seeing me naked? Have you not seen someone naked before?"

"Uh, it's not that I haven't seen someone naked before, it's just.. I never really expected to be alone in a shower with someone as beautiful as you, took it as quite a shock that's all" Kai found it hard to answer as he'd never talked about his emotions before.

Laura was silent for a couple of seconds before replying.

"Oh, ok then, goodnight" she said bluntly.

She turned over hugging her pillow, blushing to the extreme.

"M-me? Beautiful? He must be lying! He is lying! Look at me, I've got this stupid fucking eye patch for god sake" Laura thought to herself, trying to get to grips with what she was just told.

"Oh, did I say something wrong? Did I upset her?" Kai thought, still looking in her direction.

"Oh well, maybe she just... doesn't like that sort of stuff"

Kai turned and looked up to the ceiling, his eye lids where starting to get heavy. He was looking forward to his entrance exam, it had been too long since he'd been out of his IS, almost as if he missed the fight, but he could wait.

"This is it" He said closing his eyes "This is where, I start living".


	3. Entrance Exam

**Infinite Stratos Elite Chapter 3**

Kai's rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, he'd just woken up from the best sleep of his life, sitting up he could see Laura still asleep, no surprise since it was about 5:30am, the sunlight was barely bright enough to break through the blinds, he woke up specifically at this time, to get a good look around the academy, so he could at least get from class to dorm without walking around like a headless chicken.

He quietly slipped out of bed and put his clothes on, before walking out the door, he looked back at Laura, he smiled stupidly at himself.

"I think I'm pretty lucky to have a room mate like her, she seems nice enough, and she's kinda cute" he thought.

Quickly shaking off his thought's of her, he quietly opened the door, and took a step out, only to kick a small package on the floor, he bent down to look at the little tag on the side.

"Package for one Kai Hollow, contents consist of 2 School Blazers, 2 Pairs of standard uniform trousers, and 2 pairs of standard uniform shoes, to be worn everyday of class".

Kai's eyes lit up, his own uniform, sure it was like everyone else's, but it was special to him. He pushed the little parcel into his room, to open when he got back and had a shower, he started down the hallway heading down the flight of stairs, down to the bottom floor, it didn't take as long as he thought considering his room number was in the 700's.

He strolled down the quiet hallway, only his thought's and his footsteps to comfort him, he walked past a six rooms, all of which had desks, obviously the class rooms. He continued around until he came across a long, large hallway, cautiously walking down it he came across what looked like a large, 2 part door.

Without warning a laser scanner checked Kai up and down and read out loud

"Student: Kai Hollow, access granted to: Battle Arena".

That peaked his interest, a battle arena, somewhere of which he was all too familiar, back in the lab, countless test subjects where brought into the underground arena to test Kai's strength, if he was to lose, he would undergo months of vigorous training and tests, making him better, faster, stronger, anything to overpower his opponent, a memory he was not fond of, but haunted by.

Walking out into the arena, he found himself in a spectators box, but that he did not care for, something caught his attention out in the arena, an IS, from what he could see it was a dark greenish colour wielding a longsword but it looked very basic, maybe just a test IS?

"Who ever is piloting that, they have such grace in their movements" he said to himself.

The IS moved as if it flowed with the wind, almost weightlessly, the sword movement's that followed looked like they have been practised for years.

Kai stood up and put his hand on the glass, it was almost day, the sun was starting to light up the arena, he had to get back before he was caught loitering.

His memory served well as he was back at his door within 10 minutes, he slowly opened it hoping not to wake up Laura, but as he observed the room being opened up before him, he noticed the package had moved to his bed.

"Laura's up? It's still pretty early" He thought, looking at the clock it was only 6:55am.

"Oh well, I might as well unpack my uniform" He whispered to himself walking over to his bed, he could hear the shower on in the bathroom, which made sense as Laura's bed was made and the blinds where open.

He ripped open the parcel and started pulling out all the contents, his mind still on the strange happening's in the arena.

"I'll ask around later, someone is bound to know who uses a standard IS" he thought while pulling the shoes out of the package.

He heard the bathroom door open, and Laura step out, he turned only to deter his gaze, as the towel didn't cover Laura's body very well as half her bottom was hanging out and bounced a little every step she took towards her bed, as much as Kai wanted to look, he didn't want to seem creepy staring at her in just a towel.

"Oh, you're back, you woke me up when you closed the door this morning, thanks for that" she said in a flat tone.

"I'm sorry, I went for a little walk around the academy to try and familiarise myself to the place, I can count on everyone's help to get around all of the time can I ? L-look, are you decent yet?" He asked covering his eyes.

A minute or so passed before Laura replied with..

"And I'm dressed, you can look now" she said in an annoyed tone.

"Oh good, look I'm going to get in the shower, don't go pulling any stunts like you did last night ok?" He said giving her a stern look.

Kai took of his shirt and threw it on the bed, making Laura blush a little at the sight, Kai wasn't very toned, but his muscles were very visible, as well as his scars. Laura has been around men before, but something about Kai, just made it hard for her to be around him. He quickly showered and got dressed, his uniform fit him so perfectly, it made him a little emotional.

"Hey Laura, where will they be holding the entrance exams?" he asked buttoning up his blazer.

"They hold it in the main arena, you have to wait outside the main door before they let you in" she replied.

"The main door? Could she be talking about that weird door that scanned me?" he thought.

His trail of thought was broken very quickly when there was a strong knock on the door, Kai curiously opened it to find Chifuyu waiting there in a tracksuit.

"Oh hey Miss Orimura, what's up?" He asked with a smile.

"Don't give me that creepy smile Mr Hollow, I've come to collect you for you entrance exam, as you know this is an all girls academy, and they've not yet been notified of your presence here, so I'm here to escort you to prevent any interruptions" she replied.

Kai quickly nodded and said goodbye to Laura, she didn't even lift her head to acknowledge him, but nonetheless, Kai continued on with Miss Orimura, walking with her was tense, he wanted to start conversation but he couldn't really think of anything to say that would annoy her.

As they passed the through the main hallways, there were gasps and whispers..

"A boy in IS Academy? Why is he here?"

"I heard rumours of a boy that could pilot an IS, that must be him"

"He's kind of cute"

"Oh my god don't say that, I can't believe you said that! Why would you say that?!"

Kai was unused to all this attention from girls, he kept his focus to the ground, while a red mist descended over his face. It wasn't long before they reached the arena, Kai and Chifuyu stepped out into the centre, it was a lot bigger than he thought, all around the edge where spectator seats crowded with screaming girls, presumably excited that a boy was going to be piloting an IS and they had front row seats to be first witness to it.

Chifuyu held out her hand towards Kai and said.

"Here is your IS back, from now on you are to keep this on your person at all times, you hear me?" She said staring him straight in the eye.

Kai reached out for his tags, but quickly realised that only the smooth tag remained, he looked up at Chifuyu in confusion, about to open his mouth to ask where it was she interrupted him with..

"I've confiscated it, for now, you might get it back soon, depending on how you do today".

Kai reached behind him and clipped the chain back together, this is it, his moment to prove his worth.

"You will be fighting an instructor based on your IS's offensive capabilities, we scanned your IS over night and determined you will be fighting the S tier instructor, keep in mind only 5 other students have fought her, so keep your wits about you and you should have no problem, assuming you can handle your IS" she stated.

"Well, go on!" She shouted "What are you waiting for? Deploy your IS and fight!".

Kai turned towards the instructor, her IS was bulky, probably lacks speed to defend against any fast IS.

With his heart pounding in his chest, the sweat had already formed and his hands shaking, he felt the eyes of the spectators bare down on him as he shouted..

"DEPLOY IS, DOUBLE EDGE!"

And with that, his tag started glowing, the armour started forming around his legs and arms, his flight system of 3 thin wings on each side of his back spread out and stretched, Kai's IS's armour was made to his own personal specifications, the armour surrounding his arms spread all the way to his neck, and his leg armour stretched all the way up to his torso, creating a knight-like armour over his chest, after the glow of the IS's construction disappeared, there stood before the crowd a knight looking IS, completely black apart from one red stripe offset to the left from the centre.

"Not bad" the instructor said connecting to Kai's communications "But looks will get you nowhere, this is a battle, so treat it like one"

And with that, the instructor's IS opened up 2 pods on it's back, revealing 20 missile on each side, launching the left side she started stomping towards Double Edge, constructing a massive battle axe for hand to hand combat, there was a reason this instructor was rank S, it's a mix of every type of challenge an IS pilot will face on the field, it's defensive capabilities and shield where at their peak, with the ability to fight formidably at range with rockets or hand to hand with a battle axe that can be swung with decent speed.

"THATS THE SPRIT, LET'S DO THIS WARMONGER, TIME TO CRUSH HIM" the instructor screamed with a crazed look in her eye, like she'd been hungering for this fight.

The missiles that hurtled towards Kai finally impacted, it looked like a direct hit, the crowd where screaming with excitement & anticipation, but when the dust cleared there was nothing but a crater in the ground. Out of nowhere Double Edge appeared behind Warmonger.

"I'm afraid you'll have to be a little faster than that I'm afraid" Kai said in a provocative tone, his heart was racing and his body was being fueled by adrenaline, never before had he felt so alive.

"Don't get so cocky now boy!" the instructor replied with a demonic laugh.

What Kai had failed to notice that she'd already launched her second barrage and it was on an impact course right behind him, he needed to act fast, but with a sly smile he deployed his own weapons, 2 long broad swords made with unmatchable craftsmanship, in the left was engraved "Mercy" and in the other "Sacrifice".

With one slash across the horizon, the missiles stopped in their tracks and exploded, the sheer amount of explosive force pushed Warmonger back, but Double Edge stayed stationary in flight.

"Why don't you come down here and fight me like a real pilot huh?!" Shouted the instructor, getting so irritated that she hadn't won yet, barely anyone could survive her missile barrage, it was simply too much.

Hearing this Kai descended to the ground, both swords in hand and turned the the instructor who tightened her grip on the battle axe in a defensive position, unsure of his next move.

And that's when it happened, all everyone saw was Double Edge lean forward, swords pointing back, and in the blink of an eye, he went from one side of the arena to the other. Before anyone knew what had happened, the instructor's IS disengaged, the armour just disappeared, and the instructor fell to the ground, shaking slightly. Double Edge moved and attacked so fast that the instructor's shield display couldn't go down to zero fast enough, his swords cut through multiple layers of some of the strongest metal known to man, causing her to go into shock as it happened all too fast for her.

There was a period of silence from when everyone was taking it in, but then a sudden outburst of cheering and screaming came from the crowd and an announcement over the speakers.

"The Winner Is... Kai Hollow and Double Edge, congratulations for making into IS Academy, your class placement is 1-A, have a good day".

Kai had the biggest smile on his face, never before had he felt such joy over an IS battle, he turned to the instructor who was now being loaded onto a stretcher by the medical team, he felt a little bad for her, but in the heat of battle he would do anything to win.

Kai disengaged his IS and headed to the locker room, he needed to get changed before heading to class, and shower wouldn't hurt too, after smelling himself.

After freshening up, he put on his uniform and headed to his class, Chifuyu again escorted him to avoid any... _unnecessary _distractions.

They arrived at the class, but before Kai could open the door, Chifuyu put her hand on his shoulder and turned him around, making them lock eyes.

"Look, you did good today, and you where right to be placed in the top class, regardless if you're the only male who can pilot an IS, I want 110% ok? Don't make me regret my decision, now go on" she said giving him a little shove to the door.

Kai put his hand on the door knob, and with one deep breathe opened it, everyone shifted their focus towards the door, making him extremely uncomfortable.

"Oh, you must be Mr Hollow, please come in!" the teacher said with a delightful tone "my name is Maya Yamada, but you can just call me Miss Yamada kay? Please introduce yourself to the class" she announced forcing him on the spot.

Looking around the room he could spot some familiar faces, Houki, Lin, Cecilia.. strange, why where they all in the same class, even more, why weren't they wearing a uniform, they all had casual clothes on, but there was another girl in their group, she too was wearing different clothes, she had long blonde hair and amethyst eyes, wearing an orange jacket with a thick black stripe all the way around in a diagonal shape.

"U-uh, well... M-my name is Kai, it's nice to meet you I guess? I hope we all get along during my time here" He said in the politest way he could.

A sudden burst of laughter came from the corner of the room, a group of 3 girls where laughing like hyaena's, when one of them, a girl with straight black hair stood up and blurted out..

"Why should I care who you are? You're no better than the rest of us, I bet if you went against a real IS pilot they'd batter your stupid ass all over the arena, not some stupid instructor, doesn't it feel lonely to be the only boy IS pilot, if I where you I would have ended my life by now, you idiot!"

She fell back into her seat sniggering to her friends.

Miss Yamada stepped in.

"Now listen here Celia, I'd like you to remember you only got into the top class because you paid you way in with your dad's money, so please don't tease a student who got here legit, ok?" She said with a provocative smile.

Celia put her face to the desk, turning red from embarrassment.

Kai was hurt more by her words than he'd ever had been before, _yes_ he was lonely, and if they only knew they amount of times he'd try to take his life in the lab, they'd be a lot more sympathetic. With clenched fists trying to hide his emotions with a hurt smile, he took his seat at the front and centre of the class.

Not much time had past before lesson had ended, meaning it was time for lunch, Kai stood up to head to the dining hall when he head his name in a familiar voice..

"Hey Kai, over here!" Houki shouted to him, he turned to see the 4 girls still sat in their seats, but as he walked over he could see Lin look at him in disgust, so he decided to take his chance with an apology.

"Look, Lin, I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I'd like to offer you my sincerest apology, and I hope we can start again, a little better than before than last time, yeah?" he said extending his hand to her.

Now everyone was looking at her, so she felt an obligation to accept his apology, even though she really didn't want too.

"Ugh, ok I guess we can start over" She said taking his hand with no enthusiasm.

"Uh Kai, hello my name is Charlotte Dunois, it is very nice to meet you" She said with a warm smile.

Her French accent made Kai blush a little, it was his first time hearing one, and he was almost sure he liked hers more than Laura's, but he'd need a side by side comparison.

"It's nice to meet you too, and it's nice to see you again Cecilia" he said turning to her, but she just turned her head in anger at him, obvious that she still hadn't forgiven him for his earlier mishap.

"Anyway, we have something we need to talk to you about, I'm sure by now you've noticed by now, most of us here are wearing non-regulation uniform" Houki started

Kai had noticed this when he entered the classroom, starting from left to right, was Charlotte, she was wearing black jeans with her black and orange jacket, next was Cecilia, she was wearing a beautifully made blue dress with a single flawless white stripe around the base of the dress, Lin was wearing a pink and black vest, with matching pink and black ¾ length trousers and matching shoes, but Houki was wearing just normal school uniform, she explained that it was because she didn't have a personal IS, and their uniforms are based off the IS's colour schemes, but she's expecting hers soon.

"Anyway, with that out the way, we want to talk to you about the IS Elite" She said in a more serious tone.

"Alright, what about it?" Kai replied.

"Well, they're the 5 top ranking pilots in the school, and they want you to join their ranks" She said with a wink and a smile.

"Right, and who are these top 5 ranking pilots?" Kai asked in a more interested tone.

"Well.. you're looking right at them! Well, all but one anyway, where is she?" Houki said annoyed and looking around the room.

"Oh well, you'll know her eventually".

"So..." Kai said to get Houki's attention again.

"So what?"

"How do I join their ranks, Houki" He replied flatly.

"Oh, well, you just challenge them! But keep in mind you need to progress through the ranks, you can't just go for number one! You start with Cecilia, she's number 5 at the moment, then number 4 Lin, then me at number 3, then Charlotte over there, she's number 2" Houki explained.

"And? Who's number one?!" Kai said more intrigued than ever.

"Weeeelllll, we don't reveal the name of number 1 until someone reaches her, so far no one has been able to get past Cecilia, as you can tell" she replied.

Kai thought back to his fight with the instructor and the way she left the arena, he didn't want any of these girls ending up like that.

"I don't know, maybe it's not for me" Kai said hesitantly

He got up and collected his bag ready to go for lunch, but before he could open the door, someone took his hand and pulled him back, it was Houki. She put both of her hands on his shoulders and looked him dead in the eye.

"Look, we want you in our team, ok? Just think about it, the amount of respect you would gain from the school, for being even number 6, please, really think about it, for me ok?" she asked in a saddened tone.

"Oh and before I forget" she added quickly.

She pulled him in for a hug, they stood there for about 10 seconds in each other's embrace, and as they pulled from each other she gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

"Well done for winning your first match, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time" she said with a smile.

Kai couldn't help but smile back, she was such a nice girl, although he was glad she forgot about his promise, about him telling her everything, he didn't know how he could come to lie to her.

As he walked out into the hallway, Chifuyu approached him quite briskly.

"Follow me, we need to talk" she said, with no clear emotion in her voice.

Kai followed without argument, after a couple minutes, she led him to the roof and turned to him with a look of which he's never seen before.

Chifuyu took out a cigarette, lit it and took a deep puff, after breathing out she stared at him and said..

"Miss Orimura what is this abo-" he managed before getting interrupted.

"I know, Kai, I know who you are, and where you came from".


	4. Discovering Love

**Just a quick note before I start the next chapter; Although I am a fan of many other Anime series, no aspects from them have been implemented into this story, only Infinite Stratos and my imagination have inspiration for this. And for the female characters in the story, obviously I've decided to keep their names, but their personalities have changed completely, please don't come into the story thinking they're _EXACTLY _like the Anime.**

**Also, I may keep some aspects of the Anime's story too, but other than that, I try to use my imagination. Oh and I know the story is called IS Elite, with very little sign of the Elite fights happening, don't worry, they'll be coming very soon, I just wanted to get a bit of story telling out the way! **

**One more thing, this is my first story so there are bound to be mistakes, whether it be plot holes in the story line, or spelling mistakes, I do read and re-read my stories before I post them, so if you have any ideas and/or criticisms, please just leave me a review and I'll do the best I can.**

**I'm so happy that people are actually taking the time out of their day to read my story, so thanks to you guys. So if anyone is still reading, please enjoy the next instalment! :)**

**Infinite Stratos Elite Chapter 4**

"What do you mean 'you know'? There's nothing to know Miss Orim-" Kai said defensively before Chifuyu butt in.

"Don't give me that bullshit Kai, I know that you broke out of Future Genetics" taking another drag of her cigarette "does that name sound familiar?" 

Kai's eye's widened, how did she know? He hadn't told anyone anything, how did she find out? He reached up and touched his tag contain his IS.

"Yes, that's right, this was the biggest give away" She sneered throwing Kai's other tag at his feet.

"When I first met you and I saw that tag, the FG in the corner looked familiar, that's why I confiscated it from you, we didn't just analyse your IS that night, I did a little research, about 20 years ago a small company by the name of Future Genetics proclaimed that they would 'revolutionise the world' and 'change the IS as we know it', you Kai, you are the revolution, you where made to change IS completely".

"No, no, no, NO, you don't know what it was like Chifuyu, you don't know what they did to me! You think I wanted this?! I just want to be normal, but this stupid fucking responsibility was forced upon me" Kai shouted, tears forming in his eyes.

"I came here thinking it would be safe, safe from them, but you're just like the rest, you're going to turn me in, aren't you? Why did you even let me in if you was just going to turn your back on me?!" he shouted once more, the tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Yes, you would be safe if it was anyone else Kai, but Future Genetics are known for their brutality, they would go through any means necessary to get their prized experiment back, you know that. I'd rather turn you in than risk the lives of my students here, you've got to understand" she said finishing her cigarette, keeping a cool head over the situation.

"Look, you're not the only one who's different here, Laura Bodewig, your room mate, haven't you noticed something strange about her?" she asked.

Kai tried thinking back to the times he was with her, she never seemed different, apart from the eye patch, he never saw her without that eye patch, and that time she got in the shower with him, she said 'back when I was being trained', trained for what? Kai didn't want to say anything, instead he just kept his focus to the floor, the tears starting to dry, but still couldn't face Chifuyu.

"Not in the talking mood now? Fine I guess I'll clue you up" She said searching her person for another cigarette, she never smoked this much but due to certain circumstances she's been put under a lot of stress.

"Laura was trained in an army camp, she never had the childhood that you complain that you never had, when she came top of everyone at the camp, she was put in for an experiment which turned out to be one of the worst nanomachine experiment failures, it sole purpose was take make Laura the best IS pilot, but it left her with as golden eye, she didn't even want" Chifuyu explained

"And guess who was commissioned to do the experiment?" She asked Kai.

By this time Kai had heard enough, his tears had started flowing again, leaving a small puddle on the ground, he just wanted this all to stop, but answered Chifuyu's question between sobs.

"Future Genetics".

"Exactly, so now you know you why I can't have you here, you're putting everyone in danger just by leaving that lab, I'm going to make a call, and have you transported back, I'm sorry I have to do this" as thick skinned as she was, Kai could detect a slight bit of sincerity in her voice.

Chifuyu started towards the door, when Kai turned and grabbed her arm.

"Wait, I want to make a deal, please" he was almost begging.

"You're in no position to barter with me Kai, my decision is made" she replied still looking forward towards the door.

"You say I'm putting everyone in danger, it's inevitable that they'll come for me... right? Well if they do, let me protect them, let me be someone, to have a purpose to live instead of just being a nobody who can pilot an IS he said quietly to her.

"I know about the IS Elite in the Academy Miss Orimura, my plan is to become number 1, and I won't stop until I reach my goal, not you, or Future Genetics will stop me".

These words hit Chifuyu quite hard, never before had she heard of such determination, it reminded her of a younger self, someone lost behind the thick skin and the emotional barrier she had erected in her inner self, she turned to him.. Wiping a tear from his cheek, and with a smile she simply whispered..

"I'm sorry".

Chifuyu pulled his had from her arm and walked down the stairs, leaving Kai alone on the roof with his thoughts, the slight breeze gently brushed against his skin, moving his hair away from his eyes leaving the sun to shine on his face, lighting up the tiny beads of water down his cheek and in his eyes.

"I thought this was it, I thought I could be safe to live a normal life, and to love for the first time, but I was wrong, why could I be so stupid?! Why would I leave my trust in a total stranger" he thought with the emotions piling up.

"WHY CAN'T I JUST BE FUCKING NORMAL? WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME?!" he screamed into the sky, throwing a punch at the wall, of course his strength outmatched even the strongest, so he nearly enough punched through the wall, his hand still covered in blood.

"Fuck" He thought, slightly smiling at his stupidity.

Some time had past since Houki and the others had seen Kai, when they approached Chifuyu about it she just shrugged it off, asking around yielded no results, no one had seen him in the whole lunch period.

"Fine, since none of you will help I'll find him myself" She thought angrily to herself, a vein popping out on her head, packing up her little bento box, she set off.

From the class rooms, to the outer campus, Houki couldn't find Kai anywhere. As she was walking back towards the school, something on top of the school caught her attention, someone or something was up there, then it hit her, of course, she's such an idiot, the roof!

She slowly ascended the stairs, kicking the rubble out of the way from Kai's earlier outrage, she reached the door and slowly clicked it open, looking around she couldn't see anyone, but something on the floor caught her eye, it looked like a small metal rectangle, picking it up for inspection.

"One of Kai's tags, what's that doing up he-" she cut off quite suddenly, looking to her left was a puddle of red, she tried not to think the worst, but after going over and inspecting, he fears where clarified. There seemed to be smaller drips heading behind the little concrete box of which the entrance sits.

Following it around, she was shocked to see Kai sat there, with a small pool of blood around his right hand, his pure white school uniform now a stained red, he looked up and smiled.

"Hey Houki, what's up?" with a slight dazed tone, he'd lost a lot of blood.

"Kai, what are? Why are you? What happened to your hand?" Houki couldn't formulate a sentence, to many questions were rushing around her mind.

Finally she snapped out of her little state of shock and leaned down next to him, taking his hand she used the cloth around the bento box to cover his wound.

Kai looked at what she was doing, and looked at her and said..

"Why are you helping me? What have I done to deserve help?"

"Don't talk to me like that, you're a friend, and friend's help each other, you idiot" she replied, that last remark under her breath.

"There, that should do you fine until you go to see the nurse, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks I guess" he replied looking to the floor.

"What's wrong with you today? Has someone upset you?" she asked sitting down next to him.

"No, it's nothing like that, I've just got some pretty bad news that's all" he tried looking at her with a smile.

"Oh, well I don't want to pry into your private life, oh by the way, I found your tag thingy!" she happily reached into her pocket and pulled out his other tag, the sight of it made Kai's blood boil, he snatched it from Houki's hands and crushed it with his remaining good hand, and threw it across the roof.

"How did you do that so easily?!" Houki asked, shocked to how easily he did that.

Kai sniggered and said "You wouldn't believe me if I told you".

"You can tell me anything you know, I wouldn't think any less of you, you know that" Placing her hand on his shoulder, he looked up and she had a

genuine look of concern on her face.

"Ah fuck it, what have I got to lose" He sighed.

For a whole hour, Houki and Kai stayed on the roof, skipping class just for Kai to tell her everything, the lab, Future Genetics, how he could pilot an IS, and that Chifuyu was going to send him back, to protect the students of IS Academy, even after he tried to make a deal with her.

Houki sat back, trying to take in what she had just heard, one half of her wanted to run, to stay as far away from him as possible, but the other half wanted to stay, to hug him and tell him it was all going to be ok, fighting against her better judgement she jumped forward and flung her arms around his neck.

"W-what are you doing Houki?" Kai asked astounded.

"Look Kai, I don't care if you where made, or if you came from Mars, you're my friend and I'm going to be here for you through thick or thin, ok? You helped me and it's the least I could do for you!" she said almost crying into his shoulder.

Kai didn't know how to respond, but he knew to comfort her, he slowly put his hands around her, ignoring the pain from his hand which he was sure was broken, just to hold her that little more tightly.

After sitting like it for a couple minutes, a loud rumble from Kai's belly broke the tension as Houki sat up and laughed a little.

Kai feeling slightly embarrassed said..

"Well, I did skip lunch and we have been up here all day"

Then Houki remembered the bento she brought with her.

"Here" She said taking off the lid "You can have this".

"It does look good, the rice, the fish, it looks amazing, but I can't use chopsticks with my left hand" He replied looking at his broken hand.

"Well looks like _I'm_ going to have to feed you then" Houki replied with a slight blush.

"Wait what? Are you sure?" Kai replied hesitantly.

"Yeah, don't worry, it'll be like feeding a baby!" She replied with a smile, Kai was not amused.

Sitting on his lap, she said "Alright open up" holding the chopsticks full of rice, Kai complied as she placed the rice in his mouth.

Chewing away he asked "Man this is good, did you make this?" taking another mouth full from Houki.

"Yeah, I don't really like the cafeteria food, so I make everything I eat, I'm glad you like it" She said with a smile.

It wasn't long before they got through the full bento, Kai had worked up quite an appetite, after packing it all away, Houki sat back in his lap and rested her head against his chest, the sun was setting, leaving a opal orange light to spread across IS Academy, she asked quietly..

"Do you really have to go? I'd much prefer if you stayed"

"It's not up to me, Miss Orimura said she's going to send me back, I don't really have a choice" he replied in a small voice

Houki looked up at him and smiled.

"You've got a bit of rice on your face" she said

She sat up and gently placed her hand on his face, making him blush slightly, she removed the bit of the rice with her thumb, not removing her hand, they both looked into each others eyes, the sun made Houki's dark blue eyes light up, making them look like sapphires, leaving Kai mesmerised, she slowly pulled him close, with no resistance they got closer, Houki placed her other hand on his other cheek as their lips finally touched.

Never before had Kai felt like this, all his worries just washed away, his eyes closed as so he could just enjoy that moment in time. Houki was forceful, forcing her tongue into his mouth, she sat over him, pushing him closer and closer till her breasts where pushed right into him, but he wasn't going to give in that easily, he pulled her waist in closer, pushing her tongue back, and forcing

his tongue into her mouth.

Houki could feel the bulge getting harder in his pants, with a devious smile she slowly started grinding on his lap. His instincts took over as his hand slid up her school shirt and started squeezing her breast, he could feel her erect nipples through the bra, oh how he wished he could tear it off of her, he slight moans turning him more and more.

Kai had to come up for air, he wished the moment they where sharing could never end, but as he pulled away and opened his eyes, the sun had nearly gone down past the sea, how long have they been at it? He removed his hand from under her blazer and looked up at Houki, he could feel how wet she was from grinding on him, here face was red all over.

Kai was concerned, he looked her in the eye and asked..

"Are you sure you want this? I mean, after everything I told you, you know what I am, and the fact that I'm leaving tomorrow doesn't help"

He looked down at the floor, when Houki pulled his chin up, she had such a lovely smile it warmed his heart down to the core.

"Look, Kai, I told you I don't care about your past, I care about you now, ok?" she replied

"C'mon, it's getting late, everyone's going to wonder where we are" She said getting up, adjusting her underwear and skirt, she extended a hand to help him up.

Kai reached up with his right hand and got up, he removed the make-shift bandage and tucked it in his back pocket.

"Kai, your hand, it's... that's amazing!" she said inspecting the now fully repaired hand.

"Yeah, along with everything else, my body heals at an accelerated rate, it's cool I guess" he replied

"You're amazing, you know that?" she said excitedly.

This made Kai blush, and smile harder than anything, never has he been actually complimented on his genetic adjustments, it made him feel... wanted.

"Let's get back then shall we?" he said with a smile, taking Houki's hand.

She didn't resist, red faced and smiling, she followed along next to him, keeping his hand in tight grip. It was lucky they decided to go when they did, everyone had just gone back to their rooms for lights out, so they had clear hallways to stroll down, they didn't talk, but to be in each others company was enough.

"Well, look's like we're here" Kai said outside his door, room 703.

"Yeah, look's like we are" Houki replied

Neither of them wanted to say goodbye, they couldn't find the courage to do it.

"Kai-"

"Look Houki-"

They both spoke at the same time, having a little laugh Houki squeezed Kai's hand and said...

"You go first".

Kai was nervous, this is the first time he's asked something like this.

"Uh, well... I was wondering if... you'd like to spend the night in my room? I mean I know Laura's in there an-"

"Yes, I would love too" she said looking him in the eye, breaking into his trail of thought.

Kai smile, as he opened the door they silently stepped in the room, they both undressed by Kai's bed, Kai just wearing his usual pair of shorts to bed, but Houki slept in her underwear, he couldn't help but take a look as she was getting undressed, she was wearing a white lacy underwear, but the way the moonlight shone on her body, hugging every curve as she slowly removed her blazer and t-shirt, and the way her breasts slightly shook with every movement, made Kai blush, but he couldn't turn away.

They both got into his bed, Laura lightly snoring on the other side of the room.

They met each other's embrace holding each each other close, both as happy as ever.

"I'm going to miss you Kai" Houki said in a sad tone.

"I promise I'll come back, don't worry, we'll see each other again, ok?" he reassured her.

"Ok, if you promise" she said cutely, she lent up and kissed him on the cheek.

Kai held her tightly, staring up at the ceiling, he was confronted with new emotions, yeah he knew how to feel about a friend, but this? Was it love? He couldn't tell, never feeling emotions before, he was so confused. Kai played with Houki's hair until he felt her fall asleep, her breathing was soothing, for once he felt at peace with everything, like nothing could go wrong.

Kai opened his eyes and looked over to his clock, 7:30am.

Houki was still clung tight to his chest, doing this would hurt him more than any experiment ever could, but if Chifuyu was right, he's just putting her life in danger being around her. He slid out of bed and out of her arms, she looked so cute when she was asleep. Kai put on his old jeans and t-shirt, as he assumed the Academy would want their uniform back, he folded up his school uniform's and placed them on the desk at the side of the room, he also left the cloth that Houki used to cover his hand with on the night stand next to his bed.

He looked down on her and tears formed in his eyes..

"I'm going to miss you" He whispered, not being able to hold back the tears, letting them flow freely.

He kissed her on the forehead and walked to the door, an envelope contain his tram ticket and a note was inside, the note said;

"Dear Kai,

You know it was hard for me to make this decision, but you and I both know it's for the best, and Houki.

I've arranged for a friend to meet you at the station to meet & escort you back to Future Genetics.

I'm sorry, Chifuyu Orimura."

Kai scrunched up the paper and threw it to the ground.

"If it was so hard for you, you should have kept your nose out, and things would be fine" he thought, he exited the room and made for the exit to IS Academy.

Houki awoke not that long after he left, turning she saw the cloth on the night stand, her eyes widened as she jumped out of bed and got dressed sloppily, and ran out of the room, looking out the hallway window, she could see Kai walking towards the exit, floods of tears started pouring down her cheeks, that was it, he's gone.

It wasn't long before Kai was riding the tram back to the mainland, he was the only one on board for the morning ride, he sat in his spot, emotionless and cold.

The Elite 5 and the rest of the the classes were in the arena doing their morning warm-ups before IS practice, but Houki just sat on the bench, quiet and to herself.

Lin approached her as she was not happy;

"Where were you last night?! I stayed up all night waiting for you to get in, I was worried why didn't you call me at least?!" she shouted

Cecilia and Charlotte ran over to intervene with the one sided argument;

"What's going on? What's with all the shouting?" Charlotte asked

"Well, it's this idiot! She didn't come back to our room last night and she didn't even let me know where she was! I was worried sick!" Lin started shouting in Charlotte's direction.

"Hm, Cecilia you take Lin back over to warm up's, I'll talk to Houki, kay?" She asked with a smile.

Cecilia nodded as she pushed the annoyed and shouting Lin back over to the warm up track, as Charlotte took a seat next to Houki.

"So what's up? Why are you down all of a sudden?" asked Charlotte

Houki couldn't hold them back anymore, her tears started running as she collapsed onto her friends shoulder, inbetween sobs she managed;

"It's Kai, I think... I think I love him, but he's gone, Chifuyu sent him away and he's not coming back".

Charlotte looked up, now she mentioned it, Kai should've been at warm up by now, and he's usually the centre of attention, but he's not here today.

Their moment was cut short by a loud announcement over the speakers.

"ATTENTION, ALL STUDENT'S EVACUATE THE AREA, AN UNKNOWN IDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT HAS BEEN SCANNED FALLING TO IS ACADEMY, ATTENTION ALL STU-"

The speaker cut out, everyone looked up, it could be seen, 3, maybe 4 miles up, what looked like a meteor hurtling towards the Arena, all the girls scrambled in a panic when Chifuyu ran onto the arena, she gathered up 4 of the IS Elite, as number 1 doesn't usually attend lesson, they'd have have to do this without her.

"Look girls, I'm not going to bullshit you" Chifuyu started "We think that's an IS coming down right now, and we need you to fight it, ok? Houki, you don't have your own IS yet, and the Modified practice IS you've been using isn't strong enough, I want you to head back to your room where it's safe" she instructed.

"Ok, girls, go and intercept it now!" she commanded.

"We're trying, but something is stopping our IS's from working!" Shouted Cecilia.

"It's probably an Electro Magnetic Pulse, it's jamming all electrics" Said Charlotte.

"Then, there's nothing we can do, we have to retreat and wait for the military!" shouted Chifuyu.

They all started running for the door out of the arena, when a loud robotic voice seemed to speak out of nowhere.

"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE".

With that said, all the doors around the arena slammed shut, leaving them stranded helplessly inside.

Kai sighed, maybe it was for the best? Maybe being away from Houki would mean things would be easier on her.

Then the noise came, so high pitch that it broke the windows on the tram, Kai was screaming and writhing on the floor out of pain, he looked out of the window and his jaw dropped, a massive capsule like thing fell straight into the IS arena, creating a shock wave that shook the tram violently.

Kai's first thought was Houki, was she safe? He needed to get there and help.

He pried open the door to the now stopped Tram, and jumped out, deploying his IS, in mid air, he made way towards the Academy once more, his thrusters working at maximum capacity, then he saw it, he didn't know what it was, but it made him stop right in his tracks.

A colossal robot stood up from out of the Arena, it stood easily 500ft tall, maybe more. Kai's eyes and mouth where wide open, then he noticed the FG on the tops of its shoulders, would they really go this far to get him back? 

The robot turned and the loud voice appeared again.

"TARGET IDENTIFIED, SUBJECT 117 K.A.I. BOOTING, READY, ACTION".

"No, not today, not ever" Kai started "If you wanted me, you should've come for me, but now you've put the lives of my friends in danger, and now you're going to pay the price!".

Kai's armour bulked up, his IS shining, the 3 wings that served as his thrusters all split into 2, 6 wings on each side now protrude from his armour, the black peeled away into a white and gold colour.

Kai shouted once more as he powered towards the colossal being

"LETS DO THIS YOU UGLY SON OF A BITCH, DOUBLE EDGE, BURST MODE ENGAGE!".


	5. Scarlett Serena

**Infinite Stratos Elite Chapter 5**

"Deploy Burst Weapons now!" Kai shouted

The two weapons started forming in his hands, in his left a giant revolver like-gun with 'Judgement' engraved down the barrel and in his right, and huge lance the spanned 2 IS's long with 'Fury' engraved.

The girls and Chifuyu who had retreated to the far end of the arena were blinded by light emanating from Kai's IS.

"What is that? Is it an angel?" Lin exclaimed.

"No, it looks like an IS, but what kind of IS is that?" Cecilia said confusedly

"Whatever it is, it's distracting that giant, don't do anything stupid and let whoever it is handle it" Chifuyu said, just as curious as the others.

Houki knew, she knew it was Kai, he said he'd protect the students, and he'd stay true to his promise.

Kai, who was now flying towards the robot's head readied his lance, creating an arrow like pattern in the sky from the light trails around his IS.

"TAKE THIS YOU BASTARDS" he screamed as he made contact.

The robot's head flung back, almost falling over, Kai turned 180 degrees to see he'd only knocked it's helmet off, revealing a terrifying metal skull with bright red eyes underneath, the way it turned and stared down Kai could detour even the bravest, it was terrifying to be fighting a monster of this size.

The robot lifted one it's hands, holding it's palm out straight it started firing bright blue beams, dodging it's attacks Kai could feel how cold they were.

"Of course, they don't want to kill me, they want to capture me, firing ice beams, smart" he thought.

Kai started towards the robot again, but this time he'd attack from the bottom, strike from underneath and power through it's body and rip the bastard in half.

As he began his descent to the arena, he saw the girls on the other side safe, that was one thing off his mind, as long as they were safe that's all that mattered, he was now underneath the robot, charging his thrusters he shot straight up, firing his hand cannon-pistol the robot's armour started to crack, he held up the lance ready to break through the armour.

Contact, his lance ripped through countless wires and machinery, but something was wrong, why hadn't he reached the top, his speed was decreasing, his power fading.

"No, no not now, please not now" he thought as his armour started disappearing, his shield energy quickly depleting, before he could do anything his armour and weapons had completely gone, he was stuck, they'd done it, they had him, he had no way out, he knew the next light he would see was that of the operating table.

Kai was starting to lose conciousness, using burst mode really took a toll on his body, he could barely keep his eyes open. As he vision started to fade, he could hear... a voice, it was familiar, but he couldn't put a face to it.

Houki had seen everything, they way he entered the robot but hadn't seen him come out, something was wrong, where is he? She barged past Chifuyu who was in front of the group, running towards the robot with tears running down her face she screamed.

"KAI, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME, DON'T GIVE UP LIKE THIS, PLEASE, YOU'VE GOT TO HELP US".

Kai, remembered, it was Houki, his promise, he promised to protect the student's of IS Academy, he couldn't go back on his promise.

The thought of Houki warmed his heart, he closed his eyes.

"Not today" he thought.

The girls were amazed at what they saw, from where he entered with the lance, and the robots mouth were glowing, it got brighter and brighter.

"Come on Double Edge, one more time... we can do this, for them" Kai said with eyes closed.

The robot started emitting a high pitched scream, hundreds of dents from it's mid region appeared, like someone was punching their way out, finally Kai's lance pierced through it's armour, ripping it out of the way, he flew out and landed on the skull-like head, the red eyes even more menacing now he was face to face with it.

"Time to say goodnight" he said to the robot.

Before it could get it's arms off to swat him off he slammed the Lance as hard as he could straight into the top of it's head, making it scream a horrendous high pitched noise, looking down he could see the brain-like control core for this monstrosity, pointing the barrel of his hand cannon, he unloaded his rounds as fast as his trigger finger would let him.

The robot's screams were slowly silenced as it's red eyes slowly faded, the core dimmed down running out of power, and from the bottom up the robot started erupting, Kai started his thrusters to clear the blast zone, but as he started talking off, his armour once again started disappearing, his body was exhausted.

He started unconsciously falling back to the robot whom was on the brink of blowing up completely when someone in an IS swooped in catching him, clearing him of the blast zone.

Just as the Robot exploded, the EMP wore off of the school systems, the auto defense system recognized the the threat and used the matter containment field to contain the explosion, keeping the school, and the arena intact.

"Are you girls ok?" Chifuyu asked walking towards Houki who was still stood fairly close to where the robot once stood.

"What are you thinking? You idiot, you could've gotten yourself killed" She sternly told off Houki.

Chifuyu's communicator started buzzing, it was the school nurse.

"Miss Orimura is that you? Finally, what's happened? Everything suddenly went offline, and what was that crashing outside? The locks automatically shut and I couldn't get out" she said frantically

"Don't worry now, everything has been sorted" Chifuyu replied in her normal flat tone.

"Well, maybe not everything, you know that boy you sent away this morning? Well, I found him outside of the door when I could finally get out, he's in a bad way, you should get up here" She replied in a serious tone.

The news was quite a surprise to her, surely not, that couldn't have been Kai fighting that thing, could it?

"Alright, I'll be there soon" She replied closing her communicator.

Chifuyu turned to the girls and told them to follow her.

Meanwhile back at Future Genetics, scientists were rushing about, carrying heaps of paper containing battle data from the robot and Kai's fight.

"Uh sir do you have a moment?" A scientist nervously said poking his head round heavy oak door.

"Yes but make it quick" Said the president, sat on his chair staring out of the window, nursing a glass of whiskey.

"Well, it's project K.A.I, he's progressed a lot faster than we anticipated, he's already using the Bursts Mode we implemented into his IS, it seemed to unlock when trying to save his friends, mainly this Houki Shinonono girl from the robot" the scientist replied slowly walking into the room.

"And what of the training robot we sent to the school?" He replied taking a sip.

"Completely destroyed sir, as we expected".

"Very good, send me the finalized reports, and prepare subject 120, Scarlet I believe her name was, if the way to unlock his power is through love, then we've got the perfect candidate" The president replied.

"As you wish sir" the scientist replied turning to leave.

* * *

_"____Is the subject ready for the injection?" The doctor asked_

___"Yes, his body has been prepared, as soon as the Nanomachines make his way inside, they'll unlock the ability to pilot as IS, do it" The head scientist replied_

_"____Injecting Nanomachines... Now, standby for effects"_

___Seconds past before Kai's body entered into spasms_

___"Something's wrong, quick restrain his body" The doctor shouted to security_

___"Get me the defibrillator, stat!" The scientist shouted_

___"I'm ready, clear his chest" The doctor said rubbing the defib pads together_

___"3, 2, 1 CLEAR!"_

* * *

Kai shot straight up, clutching his chest, sweat running down his body, the defibrillator, it felt... real. Kai wiped the sweat from his head, it was night, maybe midnight, the half moon shone enough light into the little room which he was in making it easy to see.

"What happened? Why am I here?" He thought to himself.

Then he started remembering, his IS going into burst mode, fighting the robot, getting carried away by, an IS, he never saw the pilots face, & Houki's voice, keeping him going, HOUKI. Kai swung his legs around out of bed and stood up, only to fall to his knees, his body was still exhausted from the fight.

"C'mon Kai, you're better than this, get your sorry ass off this fucking floor, now" He thought to himself in determination.

He clung onto his bed for support until he was on his feet again, using the walls as support he made it over to the door, and clicked it open, the light from the moon broke into the dark hallway, revealing a sleeping Houki on the bench in front of him, he couldn't help but smile, but with further inspection he could see the other girls laying down along the benches, Charlotte, Cecilia & Lin, why were they all here?

"You're awake, you've made a quick recovery" a familiar voice said from his right, Chifuyu was still awake.

"Well, not a complete recovery, I can barely stand, I'm in the medical ward I take it? He asked.

"Yeah, someone saved you from the robots last explosion, we don't know who because it was amongst the smoke, but they just left you outside the medical ward" she replied pulling out a cigarette, it's common knowledge that you don't smoke in a hospitall or medical ward, but Chifuyu didn't care at this moment in time.

"You know, they were all surprised to see you came back, to save them that is, even I was a little surprised, but Houki, she seemed certain you'd come back" she said taking a small drag.

Kai felt his knees start to give way, so he slid down on the chair next to Chifuyu's.

"Here, have this, they told me not to give it to you, but it'll help get your strength back" She said passing him a bar of chocolate and can of soda and placing it in his lap.

"I guess tomorrow you'll send me back, huh?" He said unwrapping the chocolate.

"I... I've been thinking, that promise you made, you didn't go back on it, you came back and protected us, to be honest I thought you would turn and run, y'know, but you came back, for her, right?" She said nodding towards Houki who was quietly snoring.

"She was mostly part of the reason, but I can't sit back and let Future Genetics pull stunts like that, it's not fair that people suffer due to my history" He replied before taking a bite into the bar.

Chifuyu and Kai sat in silence for a couple of minutes while she finished her cigarette, and he finished his chocolate bar.

"Kai, I need to ask, what happened to you? When you fought the robot I mean, what happened to your IS? In all my years, I've never seen anything like that happen" She asked turning to him.

"Well, I don't really know, I felt a build up of anger and emotion inside me, and I just let it out, and flow into my IS, I got stronger by using my own emotion I guess" he said popping open the soda.

"Well look, I think I was too quick in deciding to kick you out of the Academy, now this isn't me saying I'm sorry, but would you like to come back? On a temporary basis of course, if you fuck up, then you're out you got that?" She said sternly, but quietly not to wake the others.

Kai laughed a little before replying;

"Always got to seem like the tough nut eh? Don't worry, I won't let anyone know you've got an emotional side" He said smiling to her, she wasn't amused in the slightest.

"I better go, I've got some paper work to fill out, but it looks like you've got a visitor" She said look past him.

Turning to his right, Laura was stood their, presumably listening to their conversation. Chifuyu got up a left leaving the two alone.

"Hey Laura, what's up?" Kai asked

"Not much, can we talk please?" She replied, also indicating if they could go back into the room.

They both sat down on Kai's temporary bed, Kai still sipping on the soda.

"So what did you want to talk about?" he asked quite intrigued.

"It's about you, there's something strange, it's like, when you're around, I feel... different, you know? Like, something inside me is trying to make me... kill you".

Laura's last words made Kai choke on his soda, kill him? That seemed a little extreme, but thinking back to what Chifuyu said, about here eye...

"Laura, do you mind if I see under your eye patch please?" Kai asked leaning forward.

"Um, not really, I'm quite embarrassed about it to be honest" She replied.

"Look, before you say anything else, I uh.. I know about your eye, Chifuyu told me, and before you get mad, I have something to tell you too".

Just like with Houki, Kai explained his current situation, but he went a little more in depth talking to Laura, as he assumed she would understand more.

"...And basically, the people that installed your Nanomachines, Future Genetics, are the same people that made me" He ended.

"Ah, that must explain the robot from yesterday then" she replied

"How did you know about that? Everyone was sent to their rooms before it hit, and you wasn't with the others that day?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I uhh, I saw it out of the window! Yes that's it, I saw it out of the window when I went to the cafeteria!" Laura said quite boldly.

"But that doesn't explain that feeling you've got about me, maybe it's our Nanomachines having a negative effect being near each other?" He replied, quite confused about the whole subject.

Kai heard some noise from outside the door, getting out off of the bed he realised the sun was almost all the way out. Before he could go over and open the door, Cecilia burst into the room.

"Kai, Kai my dear are you ok? You fought off that big robot off to save me and I thought I'd return the favour" she said running towards him.

She didn't get far before falling flat on her face, Lin had grabbed her left foot before she could reach full speed.

"No you deluded British idiot, he beat it to save me, after all I'm 10x cuter than you are!" she said

"WHAT?! Are you insane girl? I mean look at you! Your bust isn't even as magnificent as mine!" Cecilia retaliated

Kai walked past them having a little scrap on the floor, what were they on about?

Next to walk through the door was Charlotte, her eyes still looking tired.

"Ah good morning Kai, how are you?" she said smiling.

"I'm not too bad, considering current events, I assume you're a lot better than them two?" he said looking back at Lin and Cecilia, Laura now spectating their little fight.

"Oh hello Laura, I didn't see you there" Charlotte said in a happy tone "I haven't seen you in quite a while, did you want to get breakfast?" she asked.

"Sure, I'm sure Kai still needs some rest" she replied walking out of the room with Charlotte.

As he saw them out, Houki was just waking up, he walked over to her and knelt down in front of her.

"Good morning sleepy head" He said smiling at her.

She blinked a few times before coming to grips with who was talking to her.

"Kai you're ok!" she said jumping at him to hug him.

They both fell to the floor, but her breasts were smothering Kai, while he liked it all the same, he couldn't breathe.

"Uh Houki, HOUKI, a little _too _much booby action going on down here!" his shouts all muffled.

"Oh my god I'm sorry! Are you hurt? Are you ok?" she said sitting up on his lap leaving him to get up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little too much excitement for the morning that's all" He replied.

She pulled him in for a hug, they shared each others embrace like they had all the time in the world.

"Oh, I have to ask Cecilia something!" he said, catching her name Cecilia immediately running to him.

"Yes? I heard my name how can I be of service?" She said getting right in his face with a smile.

"Uh, I'd like to challenge you, for the number 5 spot that is" He replied.

All the girls looked surprised, even Lin who walked over to see what they were talking about.

"So, does that mean you're staying?" Houki asked

"Yeah, I'm staying" he said smiling at her.

Houki was so overcome with happiness that she couldn't control what she did, forcing herself upon him, kissing him. Cecilia and Lin were fuming.

"HOW DARE YOU KISS HIM, GET OFF OF HIM YOU HARLOT" Cecilia screamed.

Lin who had already partially deployed her IS and Weapon was shouting too;

"HEY NO FAIR, JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE HIGHER THAN US DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET FIRST DIBS ON HIM"

Houki pulled away, a little red faced and looked him in the eye.

"I better get going before they get worse, I'll see you later at the match, kay?"

And with that she ran off down the hallway, Cecilia and Lin behind in quick pursuit.

"GET BACK HERE DAMN IT, I'M NOT THROUGH WITH YOU" they were screaming.

Kai went back into the room he was sleeping to get changed, he'd noticed a fresh school uniform for him on the table next to his bed earlier.

"That won't be the end of it, that was just a modified test robot they sent, no doubt it analysed me and sent battle data back to them, I guess I'll just have to be on my guard for whatever comes next" he thought to himself.

"I guess I'll grab a quick shower and grab some breakfast, no doubt Cecilia will want to battle soon, and why did she react that way when I was with Houki? Strange girl" He also thought.

Shrugging it off, he made way back to his room, girls from all the different classes were already on their way to get breakfast when he was walking through the halls, some had already come to grips with the fact that a boy was at the academy and simply said 'good morning' or 'hello Kai, how're you?' but some were still amazed that a boy could pilot an IS, and they're the ones who stood and stared at him, creeping him out a little.

Kai showered and got dressed again, conversing with Laura who'd just come back from having her breakfast with Charlotte.

"So, what goes on in these fights? Is it just a normal 1v1?" He asked.

"In a fashion yes, but instead of a normal friendly battle, it's a case of anything goes" she replied brusheing her long silver hair.

"So, what does it come down too? Who's IS is shut down first?" he replied buttoning up his shirt.

"Basically yes, it's a test of strength and endurance, it can be quite brutal really" She replied.

"Well then, it sounds like I'm going to be right at home on the battlefield then!"

he stood up and first pumped in the air determined.

"I don't think so" Laura thought to herself "But he's got to learn for himself".

Kai walked out of his room and bumped right into Cecilia.

"Oh hey, did you want to get some breakfast with me?" He asked in a friendly manor

"I appreciate the sentiment but I'm heading down to the arena to get some target practice, I'm a tad rusty" she replied with a competitive glare.

"Uh alright, I guess we'll grab it some other time" he replied.

Before he could finish his sentence she'd already ran off at quite a pace headed towards the arena. Kai continued towards the cafeteria, his belly rumbling all he could think about was breakfast. During his lining up to get breakfast, he caught little bits of people's conversations as he heard his name in quite a few times.

"I heard he was dating Houki, my friend caught them kissing"

"I heard he literally punched that comet thing out of the sky, just to save Houki"

"Well I heard that he's dating the entire Elite team"

All these accusations made him think;

"'dating'? What is dating?" He'd heard the term before but never really understood it, "I've kissed Houki yes, and felt her in places I maybe shouldn't have, but isn't that friends do?" his continued thoughts left him distracted as he didn't realize the line had already moved forward and the cook was shouting at him to move forward.

He quickly got his breakfast, some French toast, a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, he took his tray and scanned the room for a place to sit, everywhere was full of chatting girls, until he saw a lone table at the far end of the room, he sighed a little as he began his leisurely stroll over to the table, when he finally got there, he went to place his tray down only to bump into someone knocking her over.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry are you ok?!" he placed his tray on the table, just to make sure and turned to offer the girl a hand.

Her hair was long and red, it covered her back all the way to her bottom, the front brushed over to the right, but still had enough length to past her rather large breasts, she was quite the beauty with a lovely pale skin that made Kai blush a little.

"Ugh, yeah I'm fine, thanks" she said taking his hand, he practically lifted her off the floor.

"My, you're the strong one, but oh, my breakfast is ruined!"

Kai jumped in;

"Hey don't worry, we can just share mine? I doubt I'll eat it all anyway, my name's Kai" he smiled

"That's nice of you, my name is Scarlett nice to meet you" she replied.

They both sat down at the small table and started conversing.

"I'm a transfer student, I just started today, I was surprised to find out a boy was learning her too!" She said biting into some toast.

"Yeah well, it was quite the struggle to get in, but I'm here now and I couldn't be happier" he said taking a mouthful of Coffee.

"What class are you in?" Scarlett asked.

"Oh, I was placed into A-1, after my entrance exam, apparently I aced it".

"Aced? I heard you was the only one to beat an S rank instructor! That's quite a feat if you ask me" She said looking desirably in his eyes, placing her hand on his.

Kai heard a familiar voice shouting his name, Houki was looking for him as his battle would start soon.

"Oh Scarlett I've got something to do, I'll see you in class though ok?" he said downing his coffee.

"Yes, indeed I'll see you in class" She said with a glare.

Houki and Kai walked down the hallways towards the arena, Kai remembered what the girls were saying in the cafeteria and had to ask;

"Houki, uh, are we 'dating'?" He asked casually.

Houki stopped in her tracks like someone just erected a brick wall in front of her.

"W-why do you ask that?" She asked looking at the floor.

"Well, it's just the girls in the cafeteria were saying that they thought we were dating, and I don't really know what dating is, I mean we've kissed, does that mean we're dating?" He asked turning to her.

"Well it's up to you? Do... do you want to start dating?" She asked grabbing her arm looking at the floor.

"Well, I'd like to know what dating consists of, I've never done it before" He replied.

Houki continued walking and talking;

"It's when two people devote themselves to each other, they love each other, and they want to be together, you know?" she said smiling at the floor.

"That does sound nice" He replied "But, I need to think about it, is that ok?"

They arrived at the arena door, Houki looked up at him.

"Of course, but please don't take too long ok?" She said smiling, she reached around his neck for a hug... "Good luck" she whispered to him, and kissed him on the cheek.

She left Kai to enter the arena on his own, as she joined the others in the spectators stand, to her surprise everyone was there, even number 1.

Kai stepped out to see Cecilia stood there waiting for him.

"You took your time young man, are you ready to get beaten down?" she said trying to intimidate him.

"Nice try, but your mind games wont work on me Cecilia, let's do this".

At the same time they shouted "IS DEPLOY".

Cecilia's IS formed, Blue Tears, it's wingspan quite large with 2 wing wing-like objects on either side. A surprise to Kai, she wielded a sniper rifle, which means she was a long range IS, which will be a challenge for him, as he's IS is primarily melee outside of burst mode, that's what she meant by 'target practice'.

He began a straight up charge with his two swords drawn, Cecilia laughed as her IS launched straight up, with a speed nothing Kai has ever seen before. She rapidly fired on her last position from the air as Kai was heading straight for it, he quickly deployed a shield to block the incoming rain of hurt.

He launched himself up following after her but she was already a considerable distance away from him, she fired at him with great precision, Kai left his shield to soak up the damage. As he got too close, she activated her thrusters and shot straight past him barely dodging his swings of his swords and deploying her 4 Optical Drones, taking Kai's attention away from her, the drones were drilling away at him and his shield, his swings counted for nothing against the small drones, he'd never been trained to fight a long range IS.

He then noticed Cecilia hadn't moved from her spot since deploying the drones, his shield was critical, all he needed was one clean hit, he was sure he could take her out, directing power to his main thruster, he charged towards Cecilia with the drones in close pursuit, he readied is swords for a double horizontal slash, but as he drew closer he saw the smirk on her face.

"Always, too predictable" she said.

The four drones returned to her wings and two long cannons that looked like they came out from behind her legs flared in the sun, two missiles came powering out of the tubes, Kai's eyes widened, his shields were too low to absorb the blast, and he wouldn't be able to bring his swords forward in time to destroy the missiles, Kai took the hit head on.

"Over so soon? Such a disappointment" she sneered.

The shield dial hit zero, his swords disappeared, his IS went into emergency mode, as he fell he saw Cecilia's smile, that devilish smile.  
He finally crashed into the floor, the IS taking all the fall damage.  
He'd lost, his first loss, he couldn't believe it, wasn't made to lose, he was made to win, he _needed_ to win.


	6. Malicious Intent

**Infinite Stratos Elite Chapter 6**

Kai layed still in the crater he created from falling out of the sky after taking a face full of rockets from Cecilia, in his whole time of being created and piloting an IS, he'd never lost to a human opponent, and it just happened in front of his eyes, as easy as fighting a training dummy. Kai could hear Cecilia walking over and laughing.

"Kai my dear boy, if you wish to become part of the Elite, maybe you should actually _try_, maybe next time sweetie" She said walking past him and out of the arena.

Kai breathed in, letting out a deep sigh ending in "...Fuck".

He heard a strange voice calling out for him, shouting if he was ok, it was too distant to accurately tell who it was, he climbed out of the crater saying;

"Yeah, I'm fine, I've had worse".

To his surprise, it wasn't Houki running at him, rather... it was Scarlett, why was she here? Did she see the fight?

"Kai, Kai are you alright? You took quite the fall" She said running into him for a hug, Kai was quite overwhelmed, he'd _just _met the girl, yet she felt it was ok to be hugging?

"I'm fine, really, c'mon we need to get to class" Kai said trying to pry her off of him, but she just clung to his arm.

Houki had seen everything from the stands, who was she? Is she the reason he couldn't answer her earlier? Her fist clenched as she turned on a heel and stormed off to class, not in anger, but disappointment.

Kai & the others had taken their seat in class, his being a seat over from Houki, but there was always a empty seat in the back left of the class, rumour has it the student showed up once, and never came back saying 'she was too good for this class'. Miss Yamada came strolling in with the same warm smile she always wears, she silenced the class and started;

"Now now class, we have a new student in today, she aced her entrance exam, that's why she's been quite rightfully placed with out friendly little class, everyone please welcome, Scarlett Serena, why don't you introduce yourself?" she asked.

Scarlett strolled into the classroom, her luscious red her trailing beautifully behind her and he gorgeous pale skin shining from the sunlight, even Kai had a hard time not staring.

Kai could hear the whispers of the girls behind him;

"Oh my she's gorgeous, her hair is amazing, I wonder if she'll tell me how she got it that shiny?"

"I saw her and Kai talking and sharing a table at breakfast, I bet they're dating!"

"Why does everyone assume I'm dating someone?" He sighed.

He looked over at Houki who was staring down at her desk, he face red, with anger he presumed, she must've heard that last comment about them dating.

"Hello guys, as you know, my name is Scarlett, I've just transferred, after hearing there's a guy that could pilot an IS" she said, winking at Kai.

"I hope we can all get along" She finished with a smile.

Most of the class cheered for the red headed beauty as she walked to her seat, which just happened to be between Houki and Kai, both of which weren't happy about it.

"Oh Kai, we're next to each other, don't be cheating off of me now" she said blowing a kiss in his direction, he just smiled and turned back to his work.

As well as Houki, the other's saw this too, especially Lin and Cecilia.

"Who does she think she is? I'll beat her down" Lin thought.

"I don't mind competition but this is down right ridiculous" Cecilia whispered to herself.

Charlotte on the other hand didn't get why they were so angry, she thought it'd be fun to have a new student to converse with.

Kai spent the lesson learning about how IS weapons were constructed through the pilots command, it would've been interesting to learn about it a little easier if it wasn't for Scarlett throwing notes over to his desk saying how much she respected him for being the only male IS, and how handsome he looked in his IS Armour.

The bell rang for lunch, everyone ran out of the door without hesitating, which left Kai, Scarlett and the others, which left a tension in the air.

Kai got up to pack his things when Scarlett stood up beside him;

"What you doing now Kai? You going to lunch? You want to sit with me again? I'll let you share my lunch as you shared your breakfast with me" She said giving him a broad smile.

"I uh, appreciate it but me and Houki usually get lunch together, sorry, besides I need to get something from my room before I eat anyway" he said to her, trying to get some breathing room.

"Well I can walk you to your room can't I? And who knows, maybe I can convince you to let me in" she got close and whispered to him, leaving Kai blushing and stuttering.

Cecilia and Lin had seen and heard enough, they weren't going stand around any more.

"Ahem, excuse me, Miss Serena, I would introduce myself, but I assume you know who I am already" Cecilia started before being interrupted.

"I think you will need to, I don't know who you are" Scarlett replied crossing her arms.

"MY NAME IS CECILIA ALCOTT, HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME WITH SUCH DISRESPECT, I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I WAS THE #1 CONTENDER IN ENGLAND AND I AM NUMBER 5 OF OF THE IS ELITE IN THIS HERE ACADE-"

Kai had heard enough, he used Cecilia's outburst to his advantage and slipped out of the classroom, but not before leaving a note on Houki's desk.

She unravelled the crumpled piece of paper to read;

"Meet me on the roof in 30 minutes" she smiled as she put in her pocket, she picked up her bag and left as Charlotte and Lin were trying to calm the heated argument between Cecilia and Scarlett.

Kai opened the door to his dorm to see Laura once again, brushing her hair.

"You know, if you keep brushing that it'll fall out" He joked laying on his bed.

"Shut up you idiot, what are you doing here? Why don't you get some lunch?" she replied.

"I will be with Houki soon, but I needed to get away from that new girl, Scarlett, she wont leave me alone, it's kind of weird actually" he said turning to her on his bed.

"Yeah, I saw her after your fight, I have a strange feeling about her, keep your wits about you, ok?" she said seriously.

"I didn't know you were at my fight?" he said sitting up.

"Uh yeah, I only caught the end though, you got beat pretty bad" she laughed

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up, I just don't get it, how could I lose so easily to her?" he said putting his head in his pillow.

Laura came over and sat by his head on his bed, and slapped him.

"You don't understand do you? She's a long range fighter, and you're a short range fighter, you'll always be at a disadvantage when you fight someone like the way you did, well, unless you do that weird thing you do with your IS" she said like a teacher.

"How did you know abou-" he said as Laura walked off.

"News spreads quickly Kai, keep that in mind" She said before he could finish.

"The way I see it, you just need to learn how to unlock the power you used before and learn to use it at free will, then you could have a chance at beating Cecilia" she said.

"Just think, what made you change that day?" she finished as she walked out of the room.

Kai turned over and looked straight up at the ceiling, he could have burned holes through ceiling the amount of time he spent staring at it.

"What made me change that day? Was it because I wanted to get back at Future Genetics? Because I wanted to save the others? Well my main focus was Houki, I needed to make sure she was ok, I needed to _know_ she was ok" thinking about her gave Kai butterflies.

"Why do I feel this way about her? Since she hugged me the first time I met her, I want to be around her, but that's just what friends are, aren't they?" he was toying with the the thought of her in his mind, when it finally hit him, he needs to meet her on the roof!

He ran out of his room, and up the stairs, checking corners for Scarlett, he didn't want her to interrupt the only bit of quiet time he would get, especially with Houki. Running up the last flight of stairs he clicked the door open to the roof, meeting Houki who was already there in their usual spot.

"I thought you wasn't going to make it!" She said smiling

"I wouldn't miss this for the world" he said sitting down.

"Well, I've made a couple of bento's today, we've got rice, fish, pork, green tea, just take your pick" Houki said unwrapping a couple of small boxes and getting a flask out.

Kai started picking at the bento's with his chopsticks, taking mouthfuls at a time.

"Damn, you're an amazing cook Houki, why aren't you having some?" he asked swallowing a mouthful of pork.

"Oh don't worry about me, I'm just glad someone appreciates my cooking!" She said sipping some tea.

"No, you're going to have some right now" he said leaning over to her with some pork on his chopsticks, Houki had no choice but to eat it.

"See, it's nice yeah?" he said laughing.

"You're such an idiot, you know that?" She said pushing him back.

The two sat on the roof for a while until Kai finished his lunch, Kai helped pack away the empty boxes and sat next to Houki.

"I really thought you were going to win" she said looking up to the sky.

"Huh? Yeah, I went in with that frame of mind too, but I was at quite a disadvantage, I guess it just wasn't meant to" He said sighing.

"Why don't you just fight her again? It's not like you can't try again" Houki replied, nudging him with her shoulder.

"And get embarrassed by getting beat again? No thanks" he replied playfully touching her nose

Kai thought about what Laura said, he might have a chance if he could use the Burst Mode to his will, but it had terrible effects on his body, and he didn't even know how activate it! Sighing, he looked down at Houki, something in his mind clicked;

"Houki" He said in a quizzed tone

"Yes, what's up?" She said turning to him.

Before she could react, he'd turned and kissed her, she didn't resist as her arms naturally wrapped around his neck.

Kai felt something inside, a kind of core, that shone with an immense light, like, a power that needed that one more push to become full. He felt the emotions from Houki flood his body, powering the core to it's full potential. Kai opened his eyes, his IS had deployed, but it wasn't his normal IS, this one was gold and white, he pulled away from Houki who was deeply enjoying the kiss.

"I'm sorry, I kind of forced that on you, but it worked! I've unlocked... whatever this is!" he said happily.

"That's what you looked like when you fought that robot" Houki said, quite amazed at what his IS looked like.

"It was you, Houki, you're the one who unlocked this power within me, making me able to use this power, thank you" he recalled his IS and hugged the astonished girl.

"Come with me" he said excitedly, taking Houki's hand, they both ran to the cafeteria, looking around he saw Cecilia sitting on a table with Lin and Charlotte, he could hear her shouting from across the room about Scarlett.  
Kai ran over and slammed his hands on the table, silencing the entire room, making them stare in his direction.

"Cecilia, I challenge you... again, but this time things will be different, I promise".

Cecilia was so surprised, it took her a second to take in what just happened, looking around the room she could feel everyone's eyes baring down on her;

"V-very well, I accept your challenge, but did you really want to fight right now?" She asked taking a bite of her home made sandwich.

Kai smirked "Is there any better time? See you in the arena" and with that, he turned and walked out, the entire cafeteria following with excitement.

"Very well, I'll beat you again and I can return to my lunch" Cecilia angrily thought.

The arena was buzzing, all of the classes had gathered to watch an Elite fight, it was a rare spectacle, Kai had already deployed his IS and was waiting, until something blocked out the sun and flew down to the arena.

"Flashy entrances won't get you anywhere Cecilia" Kai shouted.

"Well, we've got a crowd now, might as well make it worth their while seeing as this fight won't last very long" she replied.

Kai smiled as he deployed his swords, and began charging at her, and as he suspected she shot straight up like last time, he too shot straight up keeping up with her speed, performing a quick spin to knock him off her trail, Cecilia pulled back, leaving him to fly straight up, she fired a deadly accurate shot from her rifle, and it looked like it made contact, but Kai just kept flying up.

"Concentrate, she's the one, you've proven it, you can protect her, you _need_ to protect her" Kai thought to himself, his memories were taken back to when the robot attacked, the way he felt about saving Houki.

"You love her, you know you do, so prove it".

The crowd were amazed at what they saw, it looked like a bolt of light piercing the sky.

Cecilia was stationary in flight, staring at the almost blinding light, but she was brought back to her senses when the bolt of light did a complete U turn and headed towards her.

Kai's body and mind were completely in sync, his reactions inhuman, as he charged at Cecilia from the sky, he deployed his Burst Weapon, pointing the lance right in front of him, with the intent of getting a one hit kill. Cecilia fired her sniper helplessly trying to deter him from his target, but his seemingly infinite shield absorbed the fire.

Cecilia fired her missiles, but they just exploded on impact, showing no signs of damage, just as Kai was about to make contact, she rolled out of the way, but still the lance scraped her IS causing tremendous damage.

"Not so cocky now are we" He smiled

"That's not fair" She replied with sweat dripping off of her "You're cheating, using.. whatever the hell that is!" she screamed back.

Kai took the lance in both hands and began charging his thrusters, Cecilia started for the sky, trying to make distance as she was almost useless at close range, her Optical drones would simply be too slow, she began to panic. Kai released all his thruster power and once again started speeding towards her, Lance in both hands.

Cecilia, who was on low shields, turned to fire, only to catch the end of Kai's Lance, she grabbed on the the end trying to force herself away from it, but the pure amount of force from the speed he was going made it almost impossible, as her shield hit zero, Kai stopped suddenly, and jerked the lance up with quite a force, unleashing a beam of light that evaporated her IS, he'd done it, he'd _actually _done it, he'd won.

He observed Cecilia fall unconsciously from quite a height, but something was wrong, her IS hadn't gone into emergency mode ready to absorb the fall damage, Kai had dealt enough damage that actually knocked her IS _completely_ offline. Kai started towards her, she was nearing terminal velocity as he directed all power to his thrusters. About a mile off of the ground her finally caught her and brought her into his chest, turning his back to the floor, he activated his emergency mode, but the system warned that there wasn't enough time to fully engage it, but he persevered.

They hit the ground at such a force that it caused a dust cloud so dense that nothing could be seen for minutes, never mind the crater that was made, it made Kai's earlier one look like a small puddle.

Kai's IS hadn't fully deployed it's emergency mode, but it did enough to absorb most of the impact, still it hurt like hell for Kai, that and the Burst Mode taking a massive toll on his body too.

He came too, Cecilia was still unconscious on his chest;

"Cecilia, CECILIA, talk to me, please, come on talk to me!" he said worryingly holding her in his arms.

"K-Kai, is that you? Lovely day isn't it, but not as lovely as you my dear" she smiled, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek, she was dazed and exhausted, but she was ok.

"I'm sorry, I guess I got a bit carried away with that last attack, I was so dedicated to win" he said with regret in his voice.

"No, that was passion, I saw it burning in this gorgeous grey eyes since you arrived, you deserved this win, but now, I need some sleep, wake me up tomorrow sweetie" and with that, she curled up on his lap and started lightly snoring.

Kai picked Cecilia up and carried her out of the arena, the rest of the Elite joined him.

"What happened? Did you win?" asked Lin.

"Yeah I won, but Cecilia is completely knocked out, but she'll be fine" he replied looking down on her.

"And what of her IS? Why didn't it activate emergency mode?" Charlotte asked, moving some hair out of Cecilia's face.

"I'm not sure, my last attack almost like.. vaporised it or something, and as she fell I didn't see it activate so I had to catch her, to be honest my back still kills, so can we save the questions for later? Or until I get Cecilia to medical?" He asked, slightly annoyed.

* * *

"_So, you're saying he can now enable Burst Mode by will?" the voice asked._

"_Yes sir, I assume so" Scarlett replied._

"_Well, the situation is getting a little out of hand, he shouldn't be progressing this quickly" the voice replied._

"_I believe it to be one Houki Shinonono, it seems she's manually unlocking this skill through emotion, I believe he's in love with her, quite sickening really" Scarlett said in disgust._

"_Well do something about her, and contain his powers or you will terminated and we will be forced to send in a different subject, do you understand?" The voice started getting agitated._

"_Y-yes sir, it'll be done soon, Subject S.c.a.r.l.e.t.t out" and with that she closed the communicator._

* * *

After dropping Cecilia off at the medical bay, Chifuyu came to visit Kai who was sitting out in the waiting rooms.

"Congratulations on your fight today, I heard it was quite a spectical, officials say you've mastered Burst mode, is this true?" She asked sitting next to him.

"Well, not really, I mean look what happened to Cecilia, I've got a lot of training ahead of me before I've mastered anything" He replied looking to the floor.

"Well, you're in the IS Elite now, so maybe that's one thing you can look forward too, look this was a quick visit as I've not got to find someone to fix my arena, thanks by the way, I'll see you around Kai" she said getting up to leave.

Not long after she left, Charlotte poked her head around the corner, telling Kai he could go and see Cecilia now. They both walked towards the end door, in a strange silence, Kai turned to Charlotte and said;

"Hey, all this time I've been here, we haven't really spoken, strange isn't it?" he said smiling.

"Uh yes, I suppose, I'm kind of quiet that's all" She said embarrassedly.

"Well look, maybe sometime you'd like to hang out? I think it's about time we got to know each other a little better" he replied holding out a hand for a handshake.

Charlotte looked at his hand, and into his eyes, what's the worst that could happen?

"Sure, I would very much like that!" she said, and took his hand with a strong handshake.

The two entered the room, the others were surrounding Cecilia's bed, even though she took quite a beating, Cecilia was fine enough to still complain about Scarlett's advances towards Kai. He walked over laughing with Charlotte over her ranting.

"Never a dull moment with you is there?" Charlotte teased.

"Oh please, I was just expressing my hate towards that girl, who _does _she think she is? Just strolling in here, and deciding she can go for Kai disregarding the competition straight away? Please, have some class" She ranted crossing her arms.

"Competition? What competition? Over him?" he stood thinking to himself.

"But, she shouldn't be the subject at the moment" Cecilia continued "I think we're all forgetting, Kai is now part of the Elite" she said clapping.

Kai had forgotten about all of that, helping his friends was his main concern, but he had to admit to himself, being able to say he accomplished this by himself, made his smile bloom. But, he didn't do this by himself, looking down at Houki, he felt the butterflies he always felt when he was around her, he leaned over and slipped a note in her pocket, and giving her a little nudge.

All the girls congratulated him in turn, telling him how excited they were that he was finally one of them.

"I look forward to our match y'know" Lin said "I'm exited to fight another Melee based IS, maybe you could be better than me, but I won't go down as easy as Cecilia".

"Uh, I'll have you know I beat him in our first fight" Cecilia replied proudly.

The two girls started arguing over who was better than who, and who deserved to be dating Kai. Kai always seemed to be dragged into their arguments, why do people assume he was dating everyone? He never got it, so he just brushed the comments off like he never heard them.

"Well, I think it's time Cecilia got some rest, don't you think?" Kai shouted above the argument the girls were having.

"Well, if you insist, but only if you visit me tomorrow okay Kai my darling?" Cecilia flashed her lashes and flicked her hair.

Kai left, saying he needed the bathroom, when really he just needed a break from the girls, as much as he enjoyed hanging out with them, there's only so much he could take, he wondered if all girls are like this.

Houki too wanted to leave, but she couldn't just go without a reason, she thought as fast as she could before she came up with the most lame excuse she could;

"Guys, I need to head out, there's uh, there's something I forgot in my room ok? Don't stick around too long guys, Cecilia needs her beauty sleep" she said walking to the door.

After she was a few steps from the door, she unravelled the little note Kai handed her, once again he asked to meet her on the roof. But before she could react, someone came up from behind and snatched the note from her hands, turning around, it was Charlotte.

"What's this about? Is this from Kai?" She asked, raising a brow in Houki's direction.

"Uh, maybe" She replied turning red.

"What's going on Houki? You two seem to spend a lot of time together" Charlotte asked, feeling like a police woman interrogating a suspect.

"Well.." Houki explained everything that happened between her and Kai since he arrived at IS Academy, the time she found him on the roof with a bleeding had, and how he believes she's the reason he can enter burst mode.

"So, he's pretty special to you, huh?" Charlotte said.

"I guess so, I'm just happy when I'm around him, y'know" Houki replied, smiling like a stupid teen in love.

"Well, how does he feel about you?" she had to ask.

"That's the thing, he's never loved before" she replied.

"What do you mean? Surely he's had a crush before?" Charlotte asked suspiciously.

Houki had to hold her tongue, she forgot that she was the only one who knew he was Genetically made.

"Well, if he did he's never told me, he just said he's never loved before" Houki made up.

"Alright well, you know if Cecilia and Lin find out, there's going to arguments, a lot worse than there is now" Charlotte sighed.

"I know, but it's a silly risk I'm willing to make" she replied happily.

"I've got to go, Kai's probably waiting for me" she said getting up, leaving Charlotte behind.

She didn't take long to get to the roof, as she was practically running, looking around, Kai wasn't in their usual spot.

Houki heard a loud noise behind her, Kai's IS landed, the gold shine made her have to cover her eyes, it was a lot brighter up close.

"I'm sorry, but you took a while, so I decided to see if it would work again, and well.. here's your proof" he smiled.

Disengaging his IS, he took Houki by the hand and walked her to the edge of the roof.

"Is something up? You look down?" he asked squeezing her hand.

"It's.. It's just that, Charlotte saw the note, she thinks there's something going on between us" She said looking at the floor, the breeze slightly.

"Well, how would you feel if.. there was something?" he asked, slightly embarrassed at how cheesy it was.

"Wait, does that mean?" she replied, her head shooting straight up, her dark blue eyes meeting at a gaze with his deep grey eyes.

"Yeah, I don't really know how to say it, but, I think I like you, Like... I really like you" he said, trying not to confuse his words.

"R-really? You like me?" Houki said, he palms starting to sweat, her bottom lip quivering, she was getting nervous.

"Yeah, and like you explained to me, I'd like to devote my being, to loving, and helping you, but.. I don't know if that's all I say, or if I'm meant to say anything else, but I think that says it nicely" Kai said with a smile.

"And what about the others? Lin and Cecilia will be so upset" she sounded regretful.

"What do you mean?" Kai was getting confused, why would they come into this?

"Are you kidding? Haven't you picked up on how they act around you? They're basically ready to fight to the death for a chance to date you" she said, quite annoyed that he hadn't seen the signs.

"Well, they're just friends and that's the way it stays, I guess".

"Well, are you sure you want me?" Houki looked into his eyes.

Kai couldn't take the questions anymore, he'd have to make action speak louder than words;

"With all my heart" and with that, he pulled her close, and placed his lips on hers, his kisses always had a magic effect on Houki, like a spell. They shared the close space together for a while, although her breasts made it hard to hug her tight.

"Ugh, enough of this lovey dovey bullshit" Scarlett thought to herself, she'd been watching from the stairs ever since Houki arrived.

"It's about time you realised your true potential subject 117, maybe not now, but tomorrow, you won't have a choice" she turned and walked back down the stairs.

"So, this is it, we're actually doing this" Houki said with a smile.

"I guess so, but are you happy with it?" Kai replied.

Houki, hugged him close, putting her head to his chest.

"I'm more than happy now you're with me, Kai".

* * *

**Hey guys, sorry this one took a little longer to come out than the other chapters, I've been super busy with work.  
I know things have been getting very love-related in the story, but now this is sort of going to pass, as I'm going to bring more action into it,  
I don't really enjoy writing a massive block about Kai's and Houki's relationship, but it had to be done to help push the story along.**

**If you're enjoying the story so far, please don't forget to let me know what you'd like to see in the coming chapters.  
I'll have the next chapter out ASAP, well.. as long as people still read & enjoy this :3**

**For my first story, I'm super hyped to get over 1000 total story views, I know this is probably terrible, but I started this as a little past time,  
And I'm happy people enjoy reading this.**

**See you in the next chapter,  
-ISWarHawk 3**


	7. HATE

**Hey guys, just a quick heads up that this chapter gets a little NSFW later on, I've marked out where it starts and ends, so if you're a minor or you just don't like that sort of thing, you can skip it and the story still progresses like normal.  
**

**Also remember that the parts in italic are dreams, enjoy this chapter, it's a long one. :)**

**Infinite Stratos Chapter 7**

"You called for me sir?" the nervous Scientist entered the room.

"Yes, Indeed I did, tell me, why is it, that we've sent our best subject to recapture 117, but I've yet to see any results" The president replied agitated.

"W-well, y-y-you see the thing is.." he started.

"ENOUGH, you are to get Subject 117 back to this lab asap if you wish to keep breathing, get it done, now get out" The president turned in his chair back towards the window, IS Academy barely visible in the distance.

It was the start of a new day in IS Academy, Kai showered and got ready for class, finally the excitement of becoming an Elite had sunk in.

"It's a lovely day, wouldn't you agree?" Kai said stretching at the window of his room.

"It's raining, it has been all night, and I assume it will be for the rest of the day" Laura, his room mate, replied, Kai loved her German accent.

"Still, there's no reason for us not to enjoy it" Kai turned smiling.

"You're acting strange... I don't like it" Laura replied tying her shoes.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us? It'll be nice for you to be there" Kai said kneeling at the foot of the bed were Laura was sat.

"Uh, I don't really want to, I choose not to go wandering when everyone else is" She tried smiling back.

"Oh, well, maybe another time? It can just be us if you like?" He replied trying to comfort her, he'd never done it before, so he really didn't know what he was doing.

"Yeah, that'd be nice" Laura replied, giving him a small hug.

Kai walked out of the room headed for the cafeteria for breakfast, when Lin and Houki also left their rooms, only two doors to his left.

"Good morning Kai, you wanna' grab breakfast with us?" Lin said smiling and walking over with Houki.

"Yeah, that's cool, why don't we wait for Cecilia and Charlotte then we can all go down together?" Kai suggested.

A few more minutes past as the last two girls left their room and saw the group waiting outside for them, they all started walking down the hall, the four girls leading as Kai and Houki pulled back a little so they could hold hands for the small time they weren't seen, they decided it would be best not to let anyone know about them.

Cecilia opened the door to the cafeteria when Scarlett barged past them and lunged straight for Kai, the others thought she was going to attack him, but she actually tackled him to the ground in tears.

"Oh Kai, I'm so happy you've become part of the Elite, I've been thinking about you since I woke up this morning" she sobbed.

"Uh, can you get off of me please?" He asked, trying not to lose his cool, Scarlett has nothing but stress for Kai, it was bugging him a lot more than it should've done.

"Oh sure silly!" She replied, her tears subsiding.

"Do you mind if I join you for breakfast? I have something important to ask you!" Scarlett's face lit up.

"I'm sorry, but the table will be full, with us... His friends" Lin said, recalling her partially deployed IS from when she thought Kai was being attacked.

"Well, I'll just sit on the table next to yours" Scarlett squealed happily, running back into the cafeteria.

Cecilia and Charlotte both took one of Kai's hands and helped him up, he sighed as he brushed himself down. Walking in, everyone stopped and stared at the small group, freaking Kai out a little.

"You'll get that for a while" Charlotte chuckled "Just let the excitement pass and you'll be fine".

The group picked up their breakfast, and found the biggest table available, it was a semi-circle table built into the wall, Kai sat down first and before anyone could think about taking a seat, Cecilia and Lin both rushed to either side of Kai, leaving Houki and Charlotte to sit on the outside.

"Oh Cecilia, how is your IS?" Kai asked biting into some toast.

"Still being reviewed, you did quite a number on me, but it was worth it, I'm glad you're one of us now" she said hugging his arm.

"Well Kai, I don't mind if you do that to my IS! I don't even mind if you destroy it completely!" Lin was quick to retaliate, also clinging to his arm.

Kai was starting to pick up on what Houki said, why are they acting like this? It was kind of annoying. His trail of thought was broken by a loud, annoying noise. Scarlett slammed her hands on their table, just like when Kai challenged Cecilia for the second time.

"Kai, I want to challenge you to be part of the Elite!" She said excitedly.

"But you can't, you have to fight Cecilia first, there's 6 of us you know" He replied sipping his coffee.

"Well, actually..." Charlotte started "Since Cecilia is out of action for the time being, you'll need to take her place as the next on up, meaning if you lose, Cecilia will be knocked out in place of Scarlett".

Kai really felt the pressure, sure Cecilia was a little annoying and obnoxious, but she was his friend, he didn't want to see her get taken out of the Elite.

"Ok, In 3 day's time, I will fight you for the number 6 spot in the IS Elite" Kai replied glaring into Scarlett's eyes.

"It's a date then!" She replied blowing a kiss his direction before running off.

"Well that got heated quick" Houki said breaking the tension, she was obviously annoyed at Scarlett's actions.

"Kai, if you're going to be fighting her, and Lin for that matter, you're going to need training, meet me after class for some sparing, ok?" Houki said eating some cereal.

"Yeah, that could be a good idea, she's number 3 for a reason!" Lin said, eating some toast now she'd finally let go of Kai's arm.

"Alright, but I don't think there's much left you can teach me, I've been using my swords for a very long time" He remarked.

"I wouldn't get too ahead of yourself" Charlotte warned playfully.

The bull rung for class, everyone walked to their respective classrooms. Laura was right, the rain hadn't stopped and probably wouldn't for the rest of the day.

Miss Yamada was explaining the basics of the IS's thrusters, stuff Kai already knew, so he found this class to be quite boring, looking around the room, he was looking for something to entertain himself.

"Psst! Kai, over here!" a voice said, looking behind him, Scarlett was sat there, why did she move seats?

"This is for you" she said passing him a little scrap of paper, Kai opened it.

"I just wanted to let you know, that I think you're super cute, and I can't wait for out battle, and if I win, we can be together, like boyfriend and girlfriend and..." Kai felt a strange anger build up inside him, never before had he been so annoyed by one single person.

"SCARLETT, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE IT OUT? I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU, SO STOP GOING ON ABOUT THIS KIND OF SHIT" he jumped out of his seat, shouting and throwing the paper back in her face, the whole class, even Miss Yamada was stunned at what he just did.

"I-I uh, I need to be excused" He quickly walked out of the classroom and down the hall.

"What was that? Why do I get so angry around her? There's just _something_ about her that doesn't sit right with me" he thought, sitting down at a near by bench.

It wasn't long before he was joined by Laura, who was going about her business, because everyone was in class, leaving no one in the hallways.

"Why are you out of class?" She questioned.

"Long story" Kai sighed.

"Well make sure you head back soon, if Chifuyu catches wind of you being out here, she'll go ballistic" she reminded him as she wandered off.

The bell rang, signalling the end of class, the students flooded the halls, and left as quick as they came.

"Hey, are you ok?" Charlotte asked sitting next to him "That was quite an outburst".

"Yeah, I just needed to get out of the classroom, Scarlett was annoying me that's all" he replied quietly.

"She must've done more than annoy you for you to lash out at her like that!" she said trying to get through to him.

"I don't know what it is Charlotte, one minute I'm fine, and the next I'm just full of anger, but only around her, I don't want to be anyone's enemy, but I can't stand the girl!" He said leaning back closing his eyes.

"Hmm, well look" she started, placing her hand on his "I'm always here if you need me, all of us are, you're one of us now, and we treat each other like family, so don't hesitate to talk to me, ok?" she said in her lovely French accent, Kai was still quite fond of it.

"Thanks, I better get going, Houki's going to be waiting for me" he smiled, giving her a little nod, he walked off down the hallway.

Kai walked down to the arena, the rain still pouring, when he saw something that made him stop in his tracks, looking down at the arena from the window, he saw that same green IS as he did when he wondered the Academy to get his bearings, he was sure it was the same one. Picking up the pace, he made it to the arena, but the green IS was on the other side, deploying his IS he charged at the other pilot, only to be turned on and blocked by the sword it constructed.

"H-houki? No way, it was _you _I saw that day!" Kai said astonished.

"What do you mean? When did you see me?" She questioned advancing on him with the sword.

"It was early in the morning, I was wondering the academy so I wouldn't get lost so easily, but I found myself in the spectators box, up there, and I saw an IS Pilot, using a basic test model, but they way they piloted it, was like nothing I've ever seen, that someone was you!" he explained.

"Right well, did you want to spar or not?" she said in a huff.

"I guess so" He replied constructing his sword.

"Ready? I'm coming at you!" Houki yelled.

The rain made the swords slide off each other when they clashed, she was fast, did she make it to number 3 using that basic IS? Houki followed up with another quick overhead swing, but he caught it with his free hand, smiling and turning at her from looking at the sword, his smile turned to a frown as a big metal fist impacted his stomach armour, pushing him back quite a distance.

"You let your guard down, that sort of thing will make you weak and open, you always keep your eye on the opponent, you got that?" she yelled, Kai was quite honestly scared, he'd never seen Houki like this.

"Now come at me!" She yelled again.

Kai ran flew at her with his sword ready for a diagonal strike, but before he could swing, Houki had charged up to his IS, disarmed him, and flipped him over, once again putting a hard punch into his chest.

"You're only using your weapons to fight, these are big machines Kai, and they're heavy, try to use each limb like it's actually your own, don't just trust in your weapons" she kneeled down next to him and said.

The rain was getting heavier, but Houki insisted that they fight more, she taught him more than just to attack with his swords, he learned how to defend, parry & counter strike, even disarm. Quite a crowd gathered in the hallway that overlooked the arena, watching the 2 IS pilots strike at each other like they mean business.

"Do you understand now? Not all IS fights had to be about who has the better weapons and who can hit the hardest? Look at me, I'm in a basic IS and you're in a completely modified one, and I could take you out right here and now" She mocked.

Kai was getting cold from the rain, but he wanted to fight one more time, to prove that he'd actually learned something.

"Once more, let us go once more and we can head inside, ok?" Kai requested.

"Eager to lose eh? Very well, you'll be doing it again soon enough" she teased.

They both charged each other at the same time, the speed of the swords were swung made them almost impossible to see, although a thick amount of sparks could be seen between the 2 IS's. Houki went for a critical strike at his chest, lunging with her sword, but Kai caught it, disengaging his sword he caught her swing, and proceeded to block her income punch, pulling her to the ground and him overpowering her IS by holding down the arms and legs.

The rain didn't let up, they stared into each others eyes, him holding her IS down so she couldn't move, both of their breathing was heavy from the training.

"So, what now" Houki said looking into his eyes.

"Maybe we should head back, and get out of this rain?" Kai suggested.

* * *

Kai recalled his IS, leaving him to drop next to Houki, she too recalled hers as she climbed on top of him, they kissed passionately. He felt the anger caused by Scarlett melt away, luckily no one was in the stands to see their intimate moment, Kai could see Houki's nipples through her Battle costume making it hard to cover up his own bulge in the tight battle attire, the rain was cold, and he could feel her shivering.

He picked her up from the ground, like a prince would a princess, and carried her back to the locker room, leaving Houki in the main room, he went and looked for some towels to dry off. Returning he was greeted to a half naked Houki, she screamed as Kai freaked out and turned the corner.

"I have the towels" he said, letting his mind run rampant on the image of Houki naked, making it less than obvious in his tight combat attire.

"Could you pass one here please" Houki's little voice said. She sounded so much different here than she did out in the arena, like she was a completely different person.

Putting his hand out to hand her a towel, his hand met something soft, a little wet, and lightly moving up and down, it was quite large too. Red faced he looked to his left, realising his hands were inbetween Houki's breasts.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry, please forgive me, I'll just go" Kai started walking off, but she grabbed his wrist.

"N..no please wait, it's ok, I mean, we're together now, this is bound to happen" she said, her cheeks redder than a rose, her body still dripping wet from the rain.

Kai gulped hard, turning slowly, his eyes were gifted with Houki half naked once more, her breasts were a lot larger than her uniform suggested, her light pink nipples still erect from the cold, her curves were amazing.

"A-are you sure? I mean, we can just act like this never happened" Kai said his cheeks red too.

"No, I want this to happen" she replied quickly looking into his eyes.

"Maybe somewhere a little more suitable though" she smiled.

Taking his hand she led him into the shower room, luckily everyone was back at their rooms, the school was empty, they had all the time in the world.

Houki turned on one of the showers, letting the hot water flow over her naked body, turning around she let Kai run his hands over her body, he caressed her soapy breasts as she moaned, she was quite vocal as he rubbed her nipples.

"P-please, I'm sensitive there, don't be so rough" she moaned.

He ran his hands down her body and down to her sex, making her writhe in pleasure, kissing down her neck, he slowly put a finger inside of her, squeezing her breast, he slowly picked up the pace, rubbing her faster and faster, he could feel her juices flowing onto his hand, he felt a lot more weight on his hand as he legs started giving way as her orgasm erupted through her body.

Houki reached behind her and took a strong grip of his stiff manhood as she could feel it poking into her back, she almost couldn't stand with Kai going to work on her downstairs, she slowly started jerking him, going at the same pace as he was to her, until her hand and back was covered in his seed, removing his hands, she turned around, still with his piece in her hand, and kissed him deeply, the battle for tongue dominance was matched by intensity only by the strong jerking Houki was performing with her hand.

She knelt down in front of him, face to face with his manhood, would she really do this?

"I love him, I'd do anything for him, I want to please him" She thought as she slowly put the length near her mouth, her tongue teasing the tip, licking up any seed that remained from his earlier outburst. Slowly she put her mouth around the pole, it was a lot larger than she anticipated, but she slowly slid her mouth down, further and further until it finally hit the back of her throat, looking up Kai's eyes closed, his hand against the wall to support the amount of pleasure convulsing through his body.

She picked up the pace, taking more and more in, but a lot quicker over time, he couldn't hold it anymore, she was quite skilled with her mouth.

"H-houki, I.. I'm gonna" he started before she finally took the whole length in her mouth, she almost found it too hard, but she felt his hot seed hit the back of her throat and slowly seep down her throat. Removing his manhood from her mouth she swallowed anything left in her mouth.

Looking up, she could see Kai heavily breathing, his eyes still closed.

"Did you like it?" She asked worryingly, thinking she might have gone too far.

"That... that was amazing Houki, I've never done this before, I'm sorry I didn't last long" he said half smiling.

Houki looked right in front of her, he still had a few goes left in him before he was _really_ finished. She stood up, finding it hard as her orgasm from earlier left her legs weak.

Hanging on to Kai's shoulders, she said;

"I guess it's your turn" and with that, she put both hands on the wall and bent over, revealing all to Kai, which instantly made him hard once more.

"I uh, need a little help" he said turning red with embarrassment, of course, he'd never done this before.

"It's alright, here" she replied reaching back, taking his length and pointing him in the right direction "Just be gentle and take it slow, ok?".

Kai slowly started pushing into her, it was tight, almost to the point were he wouldn't fit, he could've sworn Houki's moans were getting him harder by the second, then it finally happened, his whole length slid straight inside her, the water was an excellent lubricant.

Kai started slow, keeping a decent rhythm until he started feeling a little more comfortable, then he started picking up the pace, making Houki moan louder and louder, his own moans were getting quite vocal too, reaching over he grabbed Houki's breasts and pulled he upwards, caressing her nipples she couldn't control her body, she twisted and writhed, never before had her body been under such immense pleasure.

It wasn't long before Kai started feeling it again;

"I.. I'm gonna' come again Houki" he warned.

"Just pull it out when you're there" she managed before moaning once more.

After a few more hard pumps from Kai, he finally felt it once more, and pulled out in time for his seed to drip down the drain, panting and out of breath, both Kai and Houki collapsed to the ground, the warm water from the shower still covering them both.

"That was amazing" Houki managed, leaning over on Kai's shoulder.

"Was... was that your first time?" he asked her.

"Y-yes it was, and I wouldn't have had it any other way" she smiled locking hands with him.

After regaining their strength, they showered, properly this time, got dressed, and headed back towards their rooms.

* * *

While walking back, Kai slipped his hand into Houki's, and pulled himself closer to her.

Holding hands, they stopped outside Kai's door once again.

"Strange, it doesn't seem that long ago we were here" Houki laughed.

"Yeah, I've had an amazing time tonight, I love you Houki" Kai said.

This made Houki turn bright red, smiling she replied;

"I love you too, Kai, now go on, get some sleep, you'll need it seeing as we're all going shopping tomorrow!" she said excitedly.

"Shopping? Why?" Kai asked, kind of annoyed that he couldn't spend all day in bed.

"Well, now you're part of the Elite, you need to look the part, it's time we found some clothes that match your IS's colour scheme, ok? I'll see you tomorrow" she replied giving Kai a little peck on the lips, and she disappeared down the hall and into her dorm.

Kai retired to his room, collapsing on his bed he felt like he just fought a 100 IS battle royale, it didn't take long for his heavy eyes to give way as he sunk into his pillow.

"_Kai you've won the match, kill the subject to make it official" The president said._

"_N..No, I don't want to kill anyone" A young Kai replied, tears forming._

"_Kai, you better kill him or so help me god you'll be getting the chair tonight you little shit, KILL HIM" The president slammed his hand on the bloodstained glass._

"_I'm so sorry" Kai said to the failed subject raising his sword, the tears running down his cheeks, as he slammed the sword into the subject's chest"._

"NO DON'T DO IT" Kai screamed as he sat up, his nightmare causing partial deployment of his IS's right hand and sword. His breathing was heavy and his bed was soaked in sweat.

The sunlight glared through the windows of Kai's room, it was nearly noon on a Saturday morning and Kai hadn't bothered setting an alarm, Laura tried getting him up but had no luck in doing so. Heavy knocks were heard at his door.

"Kai? Kai are you up yet? Get your lazy ass out of bed" The muffled voice shouted.

Lin walked into his room, disgusted at how his uniform and underwear were thrown about the place.

"Laura surely doesn't let him live like this?" She though navigating to his bed.

She was taken off guard, Kai didn't have his duvet to cover his top half, leaving his quite toned upper half exposed to the world. At first Lin averted her eyes, she didn't want to see him half naked, but something caught her eye, walking over she noticed the scars across his stomach, ever so gently, she ran her hands down his body, feeling if the scars were real, also getting a quick feel on his visible six pack, making her face turn red. She also noticed how his duvet almost left his bottom half exposed.

"I wonder if he..." she thought to herself as her hand slowly reached downwards.

"W..what are you doing in here Lin?" a drowsy Kai asked in confusion.

Making the small girl jump out of her skin, she turned and swung the fist of her partially deployed IS into Kai's face, luckily enough he was able to partially deploy his to defend from her attack.

"Lin, why are you in my room? And why are you touching me?" he asked, now more awake.

"Well, you've been asleep all day and the others want to go shopping already, and I can't explain the other question sorry, I'll go now" She replied recalling her IS and walking out, she couldn't leave quick enough.

Kai stretched and swung his legs out of bed, he could feel the heat from the sun, already, getting up he opened the window, a pleasant breeze entered, blowing his hair into his eye.

"Ah fuck, I need to get a haircut eventually" he thought running a hand through his long-ish brown hair, he walked into the bathroom for a quick shower before they headed off.

"Lin what's wrong? Why are you red?" Cecilia asked, now she was out of the medical ward.

"Oh, it..it's nothing" she thought rolling the image of Kai topless in her mind.

"I don't think it's nothing, what did you see in there? WAS HE NAKED?!" Cecilia screamed in the poor girls face.

"No! He wasn't naked Jesus Cecilia would you quit shouting?!" Lin replied getting annoyed at her random out bursts.

"C'mon guys, there's no need to fall out" Charlotte started.

"Yeah, the last thing we need is everyone falling out before the trip" Houki said jokingly.

The chatter was stopped when Kai stepped out of his room, as it was a hot day he decided he would wear his old clothes, some slightly torn jeans and his t-shirt, his hair still slightly wet were he didn't bother drying it, thinking the sun would do It soon enough. All the girls stopped and turned, the scruffy look suited him rather well.

"Good afternoon guys, sorry I left it so late, I was so tired! But I'm ready to go if you are" he said smiling.

"Ah yes, now you're finally here dear, we can set off into the sun, and you get the pleasure of escorting me there" Cecilia gracefully walked to his side, locking her arms around his.

"Hey guys, you headed off somewhere?" The voice from behind them said, Kai already knew who it was, her voice already made his blood boil.

"We're going out for the day, we're going now, unfortunately, you're not invited" Kai said not even turning to acknowledge her, he simply walked off.

Kai and the girls were the only ones on the tram coming out of IS Academy, Charlotte looked over at Kai and asked;

"So, why was you rude to Scarlett? She just asked a question you know" Obviously annoyed at the way Kai talked to her.

"I'm sorry Charlotte, but there's something about her, I can't stand her voice or to be around her, it makes me so angry and I don't know why, so I decided it would be best if I stay away from her completely" He replied looking out of the window at the scenery.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the station, it was just a small walk to make into town, Kai hadn't been here in a while, last time he was, he used the internet café to find out about IS Academy.

"Alright girls, we need to find Kai something to go with his IS, so remember, black and red, if you find something cool, send us all a picture on your mobile and we'll come and try it on, ok?" Houki announced, the others cheered in unison.

"They seem kind of hyped over some shopping, are all girls like this?" Kai thought to himself.

All the girls dispersed before Kai could ask to hang with one of them, Charlotte turned and saw the confused look on his face.

"Are you ok Kai? You look like you've never been here before!" She laughed.

"Yeah, it's been a while since I've been here, that's all, don't suppose I could hang with you, I don't really know any clothes shops" Kai laughed scratching the back of his head.

"Uh yeah, that'd be cool" Charlotte replied happily.

The two wondered from shop to shop, not to interested in the task at hand, they knew that Cecilia would find something eventually, she's got a keen eye.

"Do you want something to drink? I'm buying" Charlotte asked walking to the nearest coffee shop.

"Uh, yeah ok, that sounds cool" he laughed nervously, he'd never been to a coffee shop before.

Taking a seat, Kai observed the menu, half of the thing's he'd never _actually_ heard of before, but with that in mind, he'd only ever heard chatter from the Scientists in the lab, and they never really mentioned coffee, apart from the start of their shifts.

"What would you like, Kai?" Charlotte said amused at his concentration face.

"I.. don't actually know, I'll have whatever you're having I guess" he said folding and putting down the menu.

Charlotte went to the counter to order the two drinks, looking outside something peaked Kai's interest, he saw long red hair, and he felt the anger he always did when Scarlett was around, why would she follow them?

"Are you ok? You look tense Kai" Charlotte returned with their drinks.

"Two cappuccinos, hot from the kettle" She smiled taking a sip.

Kai look down at the frothy drink in front of him, it looked... strange.

"And people drink this?" Kai thought.

He picked up the cups handle, and brought it to his mouth, taking a sip his mouth turned like he sucked a lemon, obviously he didn't like it.

"It's not that bad" He said to Charlotte not wanting to know he hated it, just to get it done and over with, he chugged the whole drink while it was still hot.

"Oh, if you like I can get you anoth-" Charlotte started.

"NO!" he shouted"I-I mean, don't worry about it, the one was enough for me, really" He continued smiling, when really he died a little inside.

Kai stepped outside for some fresh air, when really he wanted to get away from drinking any more coffee, when quite a commotion happened down the street.

"STOP, THIEF" a elderly man shouted.

Looking to his right, he could see a man dressed in all black push people out of the way, he was holding a big sack, loads of paper falling out of it. As the man ran past Kai, he grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him back, his superior strength stopping the thief in his tracks.

"What are you doing sir? Why do you have a bag full of money?" he asked in curiosity.

"Let me go you stupid fucking kid" the thief wiggled around in Kai's grip/

"Oh thank you young man, thank you" The elderly man bowed as the police took the thief away.

"Please take this, it's the least I could do" he said also, handing a large pile of coloured paper to Kai.

"Uh thanks I guess?" He replied.

As the commotion died down, Charlotte finished her drink and stepped outside to see Kai walking with a handful of cash.

"Uh Kai, were did you get all that money?" she asked worryingly.

"Well, I stopped a man with a sack full of money, and this man gave me this money, you can have it if you want" He said not to bothered about the whole event.

After telling Kai to leave it in his pocket, she checked her phone, still nothing from the others, she would've thought they'd found something by now, but still, her and Kai continued their search for a jacket. Their searches took them to a small shop on the edge of the strip, a cluttered and dusty old second hand shop, walking in a small bell went off signalling the door had been opened. Charlotte went looking at the antiques as Kai walked over to the clothes rack, flicking through the old shirts and trousers, something caught his eye on the floor behind the rack, picking it up revealed it to be a black blazer-like jacket with two dark red stripes going down each arm.

"Hey Charlotte, I think I've found something" he called out still inspecting the jacket., brushing off the dust.

"Oh my, it's perfect!" She said excitedly walking over.

Kai slipped his arms into the jacket, the body and arm length were perfect.

"Hang on, let me take a photo of you in it to send to the others!" She said looking for her phone.

"I see you've found something you like" an old lady's voice crackled from behind the till at the other end of the shop.

"Uh, yes, how much is this jacket?" Charlotte asked as they walked over.

"Hmm, I'm afraid I can't sell you this jacket, you see it was my late sons, I don't know why it was on the rack, I'm sorry" she said tucking the jacket away behind the till.

"Wait, how will this do?" Kai asked pulling out the stack of money he acquired earlier.

"Where did you get that may I ask? That seems like quite a bit of money to have for such a young man such as yourself" the old lady asked raising her brow.

"I earned it, it's my pocket money from my parent's" Kai lied "I've been saving up for about a year now, and I've found something I'd like, please could I have it?" He tried to sound sincere.

In truth, his lie hurt him more than anyone else, the thought of actually being part of a family tore him apart, but he braved his emotions. The old lady looked at the stack of money and made her mind up.

"Would you like a bag?" She smiled.

Relived, Kai replied "No thanks, I'll wear it now!".

Walking out the shop with his newly acquired jacket, the other's had already congregated outside.

"Don't get me wrong, it's a nice Jacket, but from a second hand shop? Please" Cecilia said smugly.

"Well I like it, it suits him" Lin said landing a playful punch on his arm.

"Yeah, it looks great" Houki smiled looking into his eyes, Kai could fall in love over and over with her sapphire eyes.

"Man I'm hungry!" Lin shouted ruining the moment.

"Don't worry, I've planned ahead and made enough food for everyone" Houki smiled removing her back pack.

These words were music to Kai's ears, he always had time for Houki's food.

"Let's go to the park to eat, it's a lovely day, and I'm sure the grass is dry from the rain yesterday" Cecilia said walking off, leaving the others no choice but to follow along.

"I really like your jacket" Houki said squeezing Kai's hand.

"Thanks, I never thought we'd find one" he smiled back, looking before he did so, planting a small peck on Houki's lips, she went extremely red.

Everyone followed Cecilia for what seemed like forever around the park, trying to find the 'perfect' spot, when they all finally settled on sitting on a hill under a tree, the suns heat was still present, leaving everyone sweating.

"Did you bring a something to sit on? I'm not sitting on the ground in _this_ dress, it's my favourite" Cecilia asked Houki.

"I forgot, sorry!" she said, not _actually _sorry.

"Never mind, I'll sit on Kai's lap, I'm sure he wont mind" she replied, before he could anything, he planted herself on his lap, her bottom a lot softer than he thought it'd be.

Everyone went about eating the food Houki had prepared.

"Uh, Kai, I made you your own bento, I know you've got quite the appetite so I thought you'd like your own" Houki smiled as she passed him a small box.

Popping it open revealed rice, sweet and sour pork & some sushi.

"Houki, you didn't have to do this" He replied, amazed at the effort she put into this.

"YOOHOO GUYS, OVER HERE!" a voice shouted, that voice.

The pale red headed girl ran over to the group waving her hands.

Kai felt it again, that.. anger, why is this happening? Why him? Why _her_?"

He slipped his legs out from under Cecilia, placed his bento on the ground and started walking over to Scarlett, he partially deployed his IS's right hand and sword, putting it up to the red headed girl and started;

"Why are you here, you wasn't invited, I don't want you anywhere near me Scarlett".

"W..why are you like this Kai? I just thought we could hang out that's all" tears forming in her eyes.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to fight you tomorrow, be ready" he replied, recalling his IS.

Walking away, he felt light headed and starting to find it hard to walk, until he finally fell to the ground on all fours, his vision blurry, he could hear the others calling to him to see if he was ok, he finally blacked out.

"_You really hate her, don't you?" A demonic voice said._

"_What.. Where am I? Who are you?" Kai demanded_

"_Why, I'm you" a voice said behind him, the same brown hair, but his eyes, they were red with hate._

"_When you fight her, you should kill her" the other Kai smiled demoniacally._

"_No! As much as I hate her, I'm not going to kill her, I promised myself I'd never kill again!" Kai shouted back._

"_We'll see, all you've got to do is wake up, just wake up Kai, please wake up!" the other Kai disappeared, his voice echoing into nothing._

Kai opened his eyes, Cecilia was leaning over him, tears dripping down as she was shouting at him to wake up.

"Cecilia what are you doing, get off of me" Kai scrambled up, they were still in the park.

"What... Happened?" he asked scratching his head.

"Scarlett showed up, but you pulled your IS's sword out on her, it was pretty epic, oh and you're going to be fighting her tomorrow" Lin said eating what looked like Kai's bento.

"What? I don't remember any of this" he said putting his face in his hands.

"Can.. can we just go back, please? We got what we came for, I... want to go back" Kai said quietly.

"But it's still really nice out-" Cecilia started as Kai placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Please" he simply said.

She didn't argue anymore, they packed up and left, making sure Kai wouldn't pass out again, he was quiet all the way back to the tram station. All the others were worried, why couldn't he remember his own actions?

"I'm going to head to my room, I need to chill out" Kai said quietly walking away.

"Are you sure? Did you want to talk?" Houki asked him.

"No, I'll see you tomorrow ok? Thank you for today, I had a lot of fun" he said hugging her, not caring who saw.

Kai walked into his room, Laura was sat on her bed writing in what looked like a journal.

"You're back early" she said not turning her head from the journal.

"Yeah, something happened, I need some sleep" he said collapsing onto his bed.

"Are you ill? Because if you are I'm not sleeping in the same room as you" she said snapping the journal shut.

"No, nothing like that, I just... need some rest that's all" he said with a little smile.

"I like your jacket, it suits you, have a nice nap" she said retuning to writing.

"_Uh, it's still night? Where's Laura? She probably went for a walk" Kai thought as he woke up._

_Kai walked into the bathroom, finishing his business he washed his hands, glancing up at the mirror he saw the same red eyed clone he saw when he blacked out._

"_Did you miss me?" it smiled._

_The bathroom around him started melting away, the floor gave way as he fell into the training pit he used to fight in at Future Genetics. Getting up he saw the red eyed him walking towards him._

"_Stay the fuck away from me! You're not real!" Kai yelled._

"_Oh, I'm real alright, YOU made me, from all of that hate built up inside you, I was born, I'm like you, just a little more... violent" he smiled._

"_No, you're lying, YOU'RE FUCKING LYING" Kai shouted as he charged the other Kai with his partially deployed IS and sword, stabbing the clone._

"_Oh, why would you go and do that? I thought you loved her?" the clones voice said lauging._

_Looking closer, he saw it was Houki, he'd stabbed and killed Houki. Falling to his knees he started crying next to her corpse._

_"I...I'm sorry, I didn't... I... I don't want..." Kai tried, he couldn't formulate a sentence._

"_This could happen to her, all you've got to do to save her, is LET. ME. OUT." the voice whispered in his ear._

"NO, I WON'T" Kai screamed waking up sweating, still wearing his clothes from earlier.

"K..Kai? It's like 5 in the morning why are you shouting?" Laura whispered.

"Houki? Is Houki ok?" He panicked.

"Houki's fine, what are you going on about?" Laura asked sitting up, looking over she could see tears dripping from Kai's covered eyes.

"It's the nightmares, isn't it? I had them too, it's hard" Laura said holding her hand over her eye patch.

"It... was so real" Kai sobbed.

Laura got up and climbed on to his bed.

"You know, I had no one to help me with my nightmares, but there's no reason why you should be alone" Laura said putting her head against his.

"Did you want to talk?" She asked.

Kai looked up at her, she'd removed her eye patch, revealing a beautiful golden eye.

"Is, that?" Kai started.

"Yes, it's what Future Genetics did to me, and I have to live with it every day, and when I first started here, I was tormented by everyone, that's why I stay in my room throughout the day" she said quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me? I would've stood up for you" Kai replied trying to smile.

"Like I said, I've had no one to help me with this, and I don't expect anyone to help me" she said looking down at her hands in her lap.

Kai took her hands and held them tight.

"Well, you're not alone anymore, ok? We can do this together, if you'd like?" Kai said looking straight into her eyes.

Without any notice, Laura leant forward and kissed Kai, he didn't resist, he didn't want to, it felt right, although he devoted himself to Houki, he just couldn't pull away. Laura pulled back a little.

"I'd love that" she replied, and hugged him tight.

The two spent the next couple of hours laying in bed in each others arms, taking it in turns to talk about their past experiences and their nightmares. They we're both finally falling asleep when Kai's alarm clock went off, 8:30am.

"I've got to get up soon, I said I'd fight Scarlett today for Cecilia's spot on the Elite" Kai said looking up at the ceiling.

"Why are you so eager to fight her?" Laura asked turning to him.

"I just, I don't know, I feel like I _need _to fight her, and if she loses, I'll make sure she never comes back" he turning to look at Laura.

"Hey, did you want to get breakfast today?" he smiled at her.

"I... I don't know, It's just-" Laura started.

"Laura, I promise you'll be fine, and I never go back on my promises" he said looking into her eyes, one a dark crimson and the other a beautiful gold, only outmatched by her accent, which Kai still loved.

Kai walked into the bathroom and had a quick shower, eager to show off his new jacket. Stepping out, he quickly dried up and got dressed, walking out of the bathroom, Laura was dressed and ready for him, also with her eye patch on.

"Lets do this" he smiled.

Houki and Lin were chatting outside their room when Kai and Laura stepped out of theirs.

"Oh good morning Kai, and Laura? It's strange to see you at this time" Houki teased.

"Yes well, I'm coming to have breakfast with you all today" she said standing behind Kai holding on to the back of his jacket.

"We're going to head down and grab a table, we'll see you there?" Kai asked.

"Yeah, We'll be down soon" Lin replied, jumping in front of Houki before she could answer.

Kai could feel Laura shaking, was she really this nervous? What happened last must've been bad.

Walking into the cafeteria, barely anyone was there, but the smell of bacon and toast filled the air.

"See, it's not that bad, is it?" he smiled at Laura.

"We'll see" She replied quietly.

Grabbing their food, they sat down on one of the main semi-circle tables, when a group of 3 girls walked in, this made Laura almost freeze, it was Celia, the girl who tormented Kai on his first day.

"Oh, my, god. Is that Cyclops? How you doing you fucking weirdo?" the girls laughed.

Looking down, Kai could see the tears forming in her eyes, he wasn't having any of it.

"Hey Celia, how about you keep your stupid ass opinions to yourself?" he stood up, the few girls in the cafeteria turning and looking to see the commotion.

"Oh, it's you" she sneared "Why are you hanging out with _her_? Why don't you hang out with the cool group?" She extended a hand.

"Celia, if you think I've forgotten what you said to me on my first day, you are gravely mistaken, so if you think about expressing your opinion again, to _anyone, _in this school, I'll beat you like I beat Cecilia, except, I won't catch you" he stared her dead in the eyes.

She was speechless, the heartless look in his eyes scared her, she backed out of the doors, the whole room was quiet, even the chef's stopped to look what was going on.

Sitting back down, Laura was surprised and smiling at the same time.

"No one has stood up for me like that, thank you" she said quietly biting into some toast.

"No need to thank me, it was about time someone put that bitch in her place, hopefully she'll think twice before speaking out next time" he smiled.

It wasn't long before the others joined them, both Charlotte and Cecilia surprised to see Laura in the cafeteria. A voice played over the speakers.

"Attention students, will Kai Hollow please report to Headmaster Chifuyu's office, that's Kai Hollow to Chifuyu's office, thank you".

"You have a last name?" the girls asked at the same time.

Kai had completely forgotten about that, he was so used to just being called Kai, if you wanted to get technical, his name wasn't even Kai, his project name was K.A.I, but the scientists just warmed to calling him Kai.

"Uh, yeah, It's an embarrassing name, I choose not to tell people" he smiled weakly.

"I'll be back soon" he said getting up, having to pull away from Laura's hand, she grabbed it when he sat back down after putting Celia in her place.

Kai knocked on Chifuyu's door, she opened it personally.

"Please come in" she asked smiling, he could smell alcohol on her breath "that jacket looks good on you".

"What's up Miss Orimura?" he walked in to the office, noticing the 2 empty bottles of whiskey on her desk, some of it spilt.

"I needed to talk to someone, and why not you? I mean, It's been 1 year today, I... I lost him" she said looking out of her office window.

"I'm sorry, lost who?" Kai asked taking a seat on the couch.

"My younger brother, Ichika" she said looking over at a cabinet.

"I was to fight in the annual Mondo Grosso, but before my last fight, my stupid brother was kidnapped, I... left the arena to save him, but... when I got there..." she stopped suddenly, her tears dripping to the floor.

Chifuyu was a strong composed woman, but to see her crying, it wasn't right. Kai got up and walked over to her.

"Miss Orimura, please tell me what happened" he asked quietly.

"When I got there, he.. he was dead, they killed him because we didn't pay the ransom in time, cut his throat because _I _wasn't quick enough" she managed before collapsing in a crying mess.

Looking over at the cabinet, Kai saw a small picture of a young Chifuyu and a boy a little smaller than her, they looked so alike.

"I'm sorry Miss Orimura" he said looking down to the floor.

"No, you don't need to say sorry, you want to know something pathetically funny?" she laughed climbing into her desk chair.

"I, let you into the academy, because you remind me so much of him he liked to make people smile, and I've seen what you've done around the school, you've done nothing but make people happy, it's like you was sent as a gift to me, are you Kai? Are you my brother reincarnated? Come back to forgive me? Or punish me for not saving you?" She said before crying into her desk.

"You're drunk, you're not thinking straight, you need to sleep this off" Kai said walking over and helping her out of her chair, no challenge for him.

Kai walked her over to the couch in her office, it was big enough for anyone to sleep on. He set her down and knelt beside her.

"I'm not your brother, you know who I am, but if you need anything, just let me know, there's too much pain and sadness in this world already, I'm truly sorry for your loss" he whispered.

"He would've been proud to know such a lovely boy is looking after me right now, you know that" She smiled before turning to get some sleep.

Kai left Chifuyu's office, he rested his head on the door after closing it, taking a few deep breaths, trying to take in what she just told him. Turning he slid down the door, and looked down the hallway ahead of him.

"So, I'm only here, as a replacement for her brother? I thought I had it bad" He thought.

Sitting alone gave him time to think, he though his situation was the worst it could ever be, but looking around he'd been seeing hate and sadness everywhere, why is life like this? Why must people live their lives day in day out not happy with where they are? Slowly Kai stood up, the others would be waiting for him in the cafeteria.

Walking in, there was a loud commotion, with all the girls gathered in the centre of the cafeteria, pushing his way through, he saw what it was all about. Scarlett was the centre of attention, she wasn't wearing the standard uniform, instead she was wearing black skinny jeans, a white t-shirt that showed off her large breasts quite well, and a well fitting dark-pink jacket, in fact it was in the same style of Kai's.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, silencing the room.

"Well, considering I'll be joining the Elite today, I thought I'd better look the part" She winked.

"Don't get so ahead of yourself, I'll be making sure you'll never try for the Elite again" Kai replied, he felt the same anger from the park building up again, but suppressed it.

"Oh Kai, I do love it when you speak to me like that, but why don't you back up your words?" she teased.

"You wanted to fight now? I was going to save your embarrassment until later, but I can oblige" he smirked.

"I'll see you out in the arena then sweetie" Scarlett replied.

The whole room roared in excitement, another fight so soon? Everyone ran to the arena stands, even the teachers joined them, other than Chifuyu who was still asleep in her room.

Kai, Laura and the Elite were stood by the door to the arena.

"You know what's on the line, don't you?" Cecilia said concerned.

"Yeah, don't mess this up Kai" Lin said in a worried tone.

"Guys, please have a little more faith it me, I made it into the Elite you know" he said, kind of annoyed that no one had even the smallest bit of faith in him.

"Keep in mind, you've only fought a few fights, so please excuse our scepticism" Charlotte smiled.

When the truth of the matter was that Kai had probably fought more battles than all of them combined, in his 17 years of being imprisoned in Future Genetics, he'd been fighting since he could swing a sword. Kai felt a tug on his sleeve.

"You've got this Kai, don't worry" Laura reassured him, she was still nervous about being in public, but she looked like she was getting used to it again.

"Good luck, Kai, you'll do great" Houki said smiling.

"Will contender Kai Hollow please step out into the arena please" A female voice said over the speaker.

"Well, here goes nothing" He thought walking out into the arena, the sun's light blinding him temporarily.

Across from him was the unmistakable red hair, that pale skin, and the stupid looking pink jacket.

"Lets just have fun shall we?" Scarlett smiled.

"You can have fun, I'm here to win" Kai replied, deploying his IS.

The crowd roared louder and louder, they couldn't wait for this match.

"Well then sweetie, if you're going to play rough, you're going have to..."

The last word she said sent shivers down Kai's spine, as her demonic smile got wider.

"Die".


	8. Murderer

**Infinite Stratos Elite Chapter 8**

Even from across the arena, Kai could see the burning hate inside Scarlett's eyes.

"Oh, maybe I too should deploy my IS?" Scarlett laughed.

She gave a little twirl as her IS formed around her, when it finished the whole arena silenced in shock. Her IS was barely finished, bits of wiring were showing, plates of armour missing, and quite visibly, no thrusters.

"How do you like my IS Kai sweetie?" Scarlett asked in a crazed tone.

"You can barely call that an IS Scarlett, it's a death trap more than anything" Kai kept his cool.

"HOW DARE YOU! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" She screamed, in a sudden craze she deployed one of her weapons, a high calibre assault rifle, and started firing, her aim was terrible, leaving Kai to easily strafe out of the way.

"You're going to have to do better than that" He shouted as he deployed his swords and charged at her.

"Way to predictable" she thought as she deployed her second weapon, a whip made of pure electric energy.

Dodging his attack with inhuman ease, she launched the whip in his direction, wrapping around his IS's leg, she tugged him back and launched him across the arena, leaving him to slam into the high wall of which the spectators sit atop.

"Man, that is one strong weapon, and maybe I shouldn't have judged her IS so quickly, that's some mean strength, and what did she mean 'my fault'?" he thought to himself, standing up from his crater.

Once again Scarlett started firing her rifle at him again, still her aim was terrible.

"What kind of fighter is she? Her aim is terrible, so I'd assume she's had no training with her rifle, but that whip..." He thought circling around her, she still hadn't moved from her position in the middle of the arena.

"Oh my, you're quite the disappointment Kai, I thought I'd get a little more... excitement from this fight" she said biting her lip.

"Alright you crazy bitch, how about this?!" Kai shouted as he picked up speed charging towards her, he pushed his thrusters to the limit, but still, she simply side stepped and dodged his attack.

"I'm getting bored, time for this to end I'm afraid" She complained.

Using the whip, she latched around Kai's waist, and yanked him towards her, sending powerful electric shocks through his body, he writhed in agony on the floor, unable to keep his weapons deployed, his shield's were quickly depleting.

"Remember Kai? Do you remember these shocks? It's the same voltage they used on me and you, y'know" Scarlett laughed.

Releasing the whip, she walked over to the near unconscious Kai and his IS, and proceeded to stomp on his chest, over and over, each hit harder than the last, only the sound of demonic laughter and metal crunching together could be heard.

"Is this it? Am I going to lose this easily? To some psycho?" Kai looked up into the sky.

"Giving up already 117? Wow I thought I'd get more of a fight than this, oh well, time to take you home" Scarlett said kneeling beside him.

"Home? I have no home, unless.." he turned to her.

Looking through the wires in her open plating, he could see a familiar logo, the same initials he'd seen all his life... FG.

"Home? Future Genetics? You're.. Another subject?!" Kai asked, regaining little strength.

"I suppose I should explain before they get rid of you anyway" Scarlett sung as she walked away, leaving him to get up and rest on one knee.

"You see how my IS is incomplete? That's because of you, it's your fault I'm like this! They dropped my experiments the moment the idea of you was first conceived, leaving me, project 116, in the dark like a never existed, and now I'm free to beat you as much as I like, until I have to take you back, they promised they'd finish my IS, I'm FINALLY going to be complete, and you're NOT going to stop it from happening" she explained advancing towards him, her whip at the ready.

"NOW DIE" she screamed as she launched the whip at his neck, only to intervened by his IS's arm.

"I..I didn't do that, I can barely move, has my IS got a mind of it's own?" He thought, a drop of sweat dripping off his hair.

"Fine, if you don't mind going down that easily, I suppose we could play a little" She smiled.

She unleashed an electric power that Kai had never experienced, he felt his body freaking out, his IS too, it could stand a punishing, but this was too much. Kai's hate for Scarlett only grew, to limits where he envisioned himself killing her, she was truly evil. His vision started blurring and fading like in the park.

"No, I can't let this happen now" he thought, his breathing accelerated as he tried to control his thinking, but the pain was all he could focus on.

"I'm sorry guys, I've failed" he thought as his eyes closed, his body and IS had reached it's peak.

"_My turn"._

Kai's eyes opened once more, but his calming grey eyes no longer existed, instead, blood red pupils were welcomed to the world.

"Finally" He grinned.

"Hm? What's this?" Kai said looking at the whip around his arm.

Standing up, he snapped the whip with his IS's hands.

"W..What the? You were down, I'VE WON!" Scarlett screamed, her frustration growing.

"Oh my dear don't be mistaken, you've simply beaten the.. other me, he's weak and feeble, oh how I've waited to see you in person" he replied.

"What are you? Y..Your eyes, they've changed!" She quivered.

"Hmm yes, they look so much better than that other Kai's boring grey eyes don't they? Just keep in mind, these are the last things you're going to see, before you die in this very arena" Kai devilishly smiled.

"No, what... what are you?" Scarlett was now sweating profusely, you could almost feel the fear in her voice.

"I might as well tell you, as this is the only time we're going to meet unfortunately" Kai started.

"Ever since Kai met you, he'd felt a strange hate towards you, this was both of your Nano-machine's acting negatively against each other, and amongst all of that hate, I was made" He smiled.

"I'm sure they told you of Kai's burst mode, but there's something they didn't tell you, he has another mode, one of which that can only be unlocked by and extreme amount of hatred, and thanks to you my dear, that mode has been achieved, say hello, to Burst Inferno!" He laughed, the paint on the black knight-like IS once again peeled away, but instead of the gold and white, it was a dark shade of red, his thrusters contorted into 3, downwards demon like wings.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Kai said "Burst weapon, activate".

And with that, a red light appeared in his IS's hand, a long pole with a dangerously long and sharp blade at the end of it, a futuristic scythe.

"N..no stay away from me! This was meant to be the other way round, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DIE!" Scarlett screamed firing her rifle, but took the time to aim, she didn't want to go this way.

The student's in the stands were shocked, surprised and scared at what was unfolding in front of them, how was Kai capable of this? He was only a boy? Well, that's what they thought.

Kai walked towards Scarlett, unhinged by her rifle.

"Look, resisting will only make it worse" Kai's voice changed from the playful tone, to the dead serious tone.

He prepared to boost and attack at her, but decided against a fatal blow, he'd rather deliver that personally. Speeding at her, he flicked the scythe in a full 360 spin. Scarlett's firing stopped, a little blood dripped from her mouth as tears formed in her eyes.

"No" she whispered as both her arms exploded into a bloody mess, Kai's actions were so quick, she didn't know what hit her until the pain surged through her body.

Falling to the floor in a bloody mess, the stands exploded with screaming and panic. The teachers tried to keep the peace as they escorted the students back to their rooms, but the last thing on Kai's mind was to harm the students.

"P..p..please, K..Kai, have... have mercy" Scarlett choked.

"Now now, don't waste your energy begging, it will get you nowhere I'm

afraid" Kai said walking over to her frowning, he kneeled down next to her smiling.

"And I thought I'd get more of a fight than this" He mocked her.

Recalling the scythe, he clenched the fist of his IS, and raised it over her nearly lifeless body.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this" He smiled, the evil burning in his eyes.

He slammed the fist down, blood exploding everywhere, but he didn't stop, he wasn't satisfied, over and over again, he slammed the floor, to be sure there was nothing left but a bloody mess. Standing up straight, Kai breathed in, his IS and face covered in blood.

"My work here is done" he smiled closing his eyes.

Chifuyu, now recovered, ran onto the arena after hearing all the commotion outside her office, to see the blood stained Kai with his eyes closed, his face pointing to the sky.

"Kai, you better explain to me right fucking now what's going on" She said, sweat dripping down her face, he had to hold back from throwing up after seeing Scarlett's mutilated remains.

Kai opened his eyes, they returned to their normal grey shade.

"W..what happened? Why.. is this blood?" he started panicking.

"KAI, WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!" Chifuyu ordered.

Looking down, Kai was met with the remains, and the destroyed IS of Scarlett Serena, his eyes widened, had he done this? No, he couldn't, he refused to kill again, could it have been the other him, the one in his dreams? He turned to Chifuyu.

"No, don't come any closer, I.. I don't think I can control it, please" He pleaded.

"Kai, please what me what happened" She replied in a calmed tone, taking a step towards him.

"No, I didn't do it, I wouldn't" He said quietly looking at his blood covered IS armour.

Looking up he saw the Elite run onto the field, his heart started pounding, he didn't want them to see him like this. He turned and ran, engaging his thrusters he flew away from the school.

"Girls, I need you to after him, I need to find out what happened" Chifuyu turned and said to the Elite.

Before any of them could deploy, a black IS flew straight over them in pursuit of Kai.

"Wait a minute" Charlotte said.

"Is that..." Lin started.

Kai didn't look back, he couldn't face what had happened, he flew until his IS forced him to stop, taking the beating from the electric whip really did a number on him, his IS couldn't take the strain of continuous flight, so he landed on a nearby mountain, about 7 miles out from IS Academy.

"I'm sure I didn't do it, I can't have done it, I should've lost, I blacked out" He thought while landing, he wanted to get the blood off of him as soon as possible.

"_Of course you didn't do it, I did" a voice said._

"Who... Who's there?!" Kai demanded.

"_You really haven't figured it out yet?" the voice replied._

"Show yourself, immediately!" Kai replied, kind of worried.

"_Fine, just go and look in that pool of water, would you?" The voice asked slyly._

Walking over, he could feel a burning pain in his head, like something inside, was trying to get out, he lent over the pool of water...

"_Did you miss me?" The other Kai said, just like in his dream._

"Wait no, you can't be real, you're just a dream" Kai refused to believe what was in front of him, looking into the pool he saw himself, but his eyes as red as Scarlett's blood that covered his face.

"_Oh I'm very much real, in fact I saved you not too long ago, I'm still waiting for my thanks by the way" he replied._

"But, how can you even be real? I only saw you in my dream, a figment of my imagination" Kai asked, thinking he was going crazy.

"_I'll explain to you like I explained to her, I'm all of the hate built up inside of you, Future Genetics, Scarlett, every little bit of hate you felt towards them, paved the path that let me free" he explained._

"Then, why didn't you attack anyone else? Why did you just kill Scarlett?" Kai asked.

"_Your hate is aimed at Future Genetics, I had no reason to attack, or kill anyone else" he replied._

"No.. I'm not crazy, I swear, I'm just.." Kai couldn't come up with a logical solution, with everything that had happened recently, he just couldn't think straight.

"_No, you're not crazy, think of it more as... a split personality, but don't worry, my work is done, you wont be seeing my for a while. I wish you could've seen the look on her face as my.. well your fist crushed it" the other Kai said to him laughing._

"No, get out of my head!" Kai forced his head underwater, mainly to clear the blood off, but in a hope that it'd bring him back to his senses.

After washing all the blood off, he leant up against the tree, he was finally coming to grips with what happened, he remembered seeing the FG in Scarlett's armour, so technically he saved himself and the academy right? But on the other hand, he still killed someone, something he swore he'd never do again. He heard something, looking up he could see a figure in the sky headed straight for him, diving out of the way, a black IS stood before him, it wasn't until the dust cleared he realised who it was.

"Laura? Is that you?" He could recognize that silver hair anywhere.

"Kai, you need to explain what happened, if not, I have no option other than to eliminate you" she said in a monotone voice.

Kai would've been happy to explain, if he didn't have a massive shoulder-mounted cannon in his face.

"Look Laura, I'll be more than happy to explain, if you'd just recall your IS we-" he said before Laura spoke over him.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to sacrifice my own safety in order to get an answer, although I could easily beat you in any mode you choose, I'm not in the mood, so get talking, please" She spoke loudly.

Kai sat back down up against the tree, Laura didn't take her focus off him the whole time, he took of the tag off from around his neck and threw it at Laura's feet.

"To be honest, I don't understand the whole situation myself Laura, all I know is that I blacked out, and when I came too, Scarlett was dead" she sighed.

"So, who was that who was fighting Kai?" she asked picking up his tag.

"At first I saw him in my dream, but it turns out, I created him, from all the hate I feel for Future Genetics, and from Scarlett... I... Made him" Kai said looking at his hands.

"Made who Kai? Tell me" She replied in a calmed tone.

"It.. it's all of my hate, everything bad in me, it made another me" he put his hands over his eyes.

Laura disengaged her IS, still keeping a strong grip of his tags, she walked over and sat with him, removing her eye patch she said;

"We said we're in this together, so I'm going to believe you for now, but I don't think you'll win Chifuyu over as easily as me" Laura said, handing back his tags, also giving him a hug.

They sat on the mountain until sundown, staying in each others embrace calmed Kai down, letting him think straight, and getting his mind off of the other him.

"If he said he doesn't have any interest in attacking students, then he should be safe right?" Kai thought.

"I think it's time we got back" Laura said letting out a little yawn.

"Tired?" Kai jokingly said.

"I haven't piloted my IS in a while you ass, it's going to take a while to get used to again, it takes it out of me, that's all" she said getting her head comfy on his chest.

Running a hand through her hair, he felt something inside, the same feeling he gets when he's alone with Houki, the butterflies, and the calm feeling, like nothing in the world mattered except them. Kai tried to shake off the feeling.

"Laura, are you good to fly back?" he asked, she was already asleep.

Laughing slightly, he put his tag back on, deployed his IS, scooped up Laura like you would hold a baby in your arms, she was quite petite anyway, and began the journey back.

"Any sign of his IS on the radar?" Chifuyu asked the head of security.

"Not at the moment Ma'am.. Oh wait, we're picking up something" he replied running back to the computer.

"It's Kai, get ready to detain him" The head ordered.

"No, I'm going to talk to him myself, I'll take cuffs don't worry" Chifuyu said leaving the room.

Kai landed on the roof of the school, he recalled his IS, and started carrying Laura back to their room. The others were already waiting in there, maybe they were waiting for Laura to get back to get some information. They all turned as Kai opened the door.

"Kai..." Houki started, he could hear the sadness in her voice.

"Where have you been?" Cecilia asked in a calm, yet authoritative tone.

"I uh, I needed some time away" Kai replied quietly, entering the room.

"We need to know what happened Kai" Charlotte said staring into her cup.

Kai put Laura into her bed and pulled the cover over her, sighing he faced the other 4.

"Can we go somewhere else, to talk about this?" he asked.

"You can come with me then" Chifuyu said opening the door.

"But I'm going to have to ask you to wear these" She said showing him the cuffs.

"That won't be necessary Miss Orimura" he replied, handing over his IS.

"Very well, girls?" She said looking back into the dark room.

The others followed along to Chifuyu's office, she locked the door behind them.

"Now, no one is leaving this room until I get some fucking answers" She said pulling out a cigarette.

Everyone shifted their attention to Kai, after a deep breath, he began to speak.

"I... I'm broken" he simply said with a fragile smile.

"What do you mean?" Houki said, tears forming in her eyes.

"All the hate, the hate for Future Genetics, the hate I felt for Scarlett, it made another me, a me full of hate and grief, when I blacked out in the arena, he took over, and he too out his anger, Scarlett was another subject from Future Genetics, I saved the myself, and the students, but that doesn't detour the fact, that even if we share a body, I've got his blood on my hands" he said sinking into his chair.

"So you're saying you've got a split personality?" Chifuyu sat down in her chair.

"I think that's what is, but he said I won't seeing him again, for a while at least" he replied quietly.

"And how can I guarantee the safety of my students? Of my faculty?" Chifuyu asked.

"He said, where my hate was because of FG and Scarlett, he has no interest in the students, or anyone else for that matter" He replied.

"This, is interesting, so can you communicate with, this other Kai?" Chifuyu asked leaning forward.

"I've mostly seen him in my dreams, I have nightmares, sometimes" He said passing a glance at Houki, that nightmare still haunted him.

"I need time to think, Kai, I'm keeping your belonging's for now, it's the only way I can guarantee everyone's safety, but tomorrow, you're going to tell everyone in this Academy what you are, and it'll be up to them to decide your future, are you ok with this?" she asked finishing her cigarette.

Kai was in no position to argue, he said he'd defend IS Academy from Future Genetics, and that's what he did, but not in the most spectacular way. It'd be best to see if the students would want this, he didn't want to cause any more problems, he nodded.

"Ok, you may all leave" she said turning around in her desk to face the window.

They all walked out in silence, Kai almost didn't want to face the 4 of them outside of her office. After he clicked the door shut he turned to the girls, all of them but Houki just turned and left without questioning Kai's answers, they were emotionally drained and didn't know what to think of the situation, but they didn't know about his past, about him being a lab experiment, not like Houki did, she understood.

"Houki..." Kai started quietly.

She couldn't take it, she'd been an emotional wreck since she saw the mess in the arena, she was strong for holding back on her emotions and tears, but she couldn't handle it anymore, she stepped forward into his embrace, burying her head into his chest, covering his t-shirt in her tears.

"Kai, why did you run? We could've talked this through" She sobbed.

"I would've, but when I saw you all running towards me, I didn't want anyone to see me like that" He replied, holding her close to him.

"I wouldn't have cared, I just wanted to know you were ok!" She said pulling her head back, looking him in the eye.

"Houki, you're tired, you need sleep, let's go back c'mon" he asked politely.

Without a second thought, he swept Houki off her feet to carry her back to her room, if he didn't take action she would've refused to sleep. She didn't resist as he silently paced through the quiet halls, quickly arriving at her door, he put her back down on her feet. She grabbed onto his jacket with both hands, keeping a tight grip, she looked at the floor;

"You can stay with me tonight, if you like" She said quietly.

Kai considered the thought of it, but she was emotional, vulnerable, he refused to take advantage of her like that.

"Not right now, not until you've has some rest and you're thinking straight, get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow" he replied, looking at her saddened face, he couldn't even bring himself to kiss her goodnight, he simply walked back into his room.

Looking around in his room, something seemed... different. All his clothes were in a neat pile at the foot of his bed, Laura's bed made, but his.. looked occupied. Walking over, he noticed a shimmering bit of silver hair poking out from underneath the sheets, the moon set if off perfectly. Sitting next to the little lump in his bed, he gave her a little nudge.

"I'm pretty sure I put you in your own bed, I even tucked you in" He said smiling.

"I..I'm sorry, I woke up not that long ago, so I did some cleaning" She rubbed her eyes, she had taken off her eye patch and left it on the bedside table.

"So, you decided to sleep in my bed?" he joked.

"It looked comfortable" She simply replied innocently, the moon shimmering off her hair and eyes.

"What are the chances you'll be getting out?" he said taking off his jacket.

"Very little" She smiled moving over for him.

Kai slipped into the bed with Laura, his worries washed away, things had been too tense with Houki for him to feel relaxed around her.

"You know, I said a while back it felt like I wanted to kill you" Laura brought up so casually.

"Yeah?" Kai said worried that'd she'd pull a knife out on him or something, he was pretty much defenceless.

"That feeling, I no longer have it, it feels like, the nano-machine's inside me have stopped reacting negatively towards yours" She smiled turning to him.

"Is this her way of saying she likes me? I'm just relived she doesn't want to kill me anymore, but still, why don't I get these feelings like Laura did, I got them with Scarlett, but.." He thought.

"What's up?" She asked putting her chin on his chest, looking up at him.

"Oh it's uh, it's nothing, just trying to get my head around today's events" he said keeping his focus on the ceiling.

"You didn't kill her Kai, well.. you did, but _you _didn't, don't think his actions can be accused as yours" She said looking out into the starry sky, they'd left the blinds open.

"I know I shouldn't, but he just destroyed everything I stand for, I've killed so many other subjects at Future Genetics, that I can't bring myself to do it again, but he did it with ease, but I guess it's fair what Chifuyu said, I'm going to explain to everyone what I am and where I'm from tomorrow, and they can vote if I stay or go, it's their Academy, I feel like an intruder, I've turned people's lives upside down, and I've even put some in danger, I wouldn't be surprised if they want me gone" He explained, Laura placed her hand under his chin, turning him to her.

"Look, if they they have the smallest amount of common sense, they'll see the same Kai I see, the kind, thoughtful, loving Kai that's right in front of me now, and you'll stay, and you can carry on fighting the Elite, and who knows, you might even beat Future Genetics" she smiled.

"That's a bit ambitious don't you think?" He said running his hand over Laura's hair.

Although to Kai, the thought of taking down FG would mean the end to all the pain and suffering others are going through while he was free, and the end of all his running, he could actually live without the fear of them breathing down his neck.

"I need some sleep" he sighed, pulling the cover up to his shoulders.

"Goodnight Kai" Laura replied, leaning up and giving him a long kiss on his lips, his mind turned to Houki, and was screaming at him to stop, but instead he ignored and got lost in the moment.

Kai awoke the next day to a face full of silver hair and Laura latched on to him for dear life, judging at how high the sun was, he'd say it was around 9am.

"Do I get up? Or do I just enjoy this?" He thought, convinced that he was going to get voted out of the school, his thoughts cut short by a loud knock at the door.

He slid on his t-shirt and opened the door, of course that knock could only belong to Chifuyu.

"Get dressed, you're due in the lecture hall in 10 minutes, I'll wait for you here to escort you there" she said authoritatively.

Closing the door he walked back over to the bed he and Laura slept in, the clothes he wore were scattered on the floor, sliding his trousers on, Laura awoke.

"Hey, where are you going?" She asked rubbing here eyes.

"I've got to go to the lecture hall, I have to give my speech soon" he said nervously, sliding on his black and red jacket, Laura got up and gave him a hug.

"Good luck, remember what I said last night" She said quietly.

He walked outside of his room and took a deep breath, nodding to Chifuyu that he was read to go. He followed her for a while, to the lecture hall, It was his first visit. The room could easily seat the whole school, and more. At the front of the seats was a small stage, with a single microphone stand.

"You'll be down there, do you have a speech planned?" Chifuyu asked.

"No, I'm just going to tell them the truth" he replied staring at the stage.

It wasn't long before the whole school was inside the lecture hall, Kai noticed the Elite stood at the back with Laura, Chifuyu took the microphone and silenced the room.

"Now listen, this is a very serious issue that needs to addressed, yesterday morning we had an incident in the main arena, Scarlett Serena and Kai Hollow fought for a spot on the IS Elite. As the fight continued, it seemed like Scarlett won, but with a miraculous recovery, he overpowered Scarlett, and killed her, we're going to show you some footage of the fight, this is quite gruesome, so if you can't stand this type of thing, please look away now" Chifuyu ended her speech, she stepped of the podium as a short clip from the fight played.

It was just after the other Kai cut off Scarlett's arms, and proceeded to punch her to death with his IS, it was Kai's turn to take the stage.

"Hello everyone, as you know, I'm Kai, and I'm here to explain what happened yesterday morning, but first, I think it's best to tell you who, or what I am" He started.

Kai explained to everyone what had happened in his past, about being created in a lab, and how his sole purpose is to revolutionise the IS industry by being the first and the best male IS pilot, he also went into detail about the robot attack, and how he stayed true to his promise of defending the school and it's students at any cost. He had some trouble explaining the situation between Scarlett and himself, he explained that he had a temporary split personality, and that other him wanted vengeance for what Future Genetics had done to him, how the other Kai took over his body and took action against his own will, and how it's against his morals to kill, leaving out the parts were he killed test subjects.

"Look, I've met some amazing people at this Academy, you've all treated me like family, I could die right now happy with how my life has turned around.

I'm still going to uphold my promise, I _will_ protect every last one of you till my dying breath, but... if you don't feel safe with me around, I'll cause no fuss in leaving you all in peace" He finished, Chifuyu retook the stage.

"Right girls, under your seats, you'll find an envelope with a sheet of paper inside, you'll find a simple yes or no question on said paper, please put your answer on this paper, seal it, and pass it to your nearest teacher please" she ordered.

The room started buzzing with commotion, some of the girls saying how they love the idea of being saved by Kai, and others saying how they'd prefer a quiet time at IS Academy, the room was severely split in half with opinion. But finally, the noise died down as the teachers placed all the envelopes on a table next to the stage.

"Thank you for complying, now you can all go to class as these are tallied up, when you all return, we'll see if Kai will be leaving or staying, dismissed!" She finished.

Kai got up to leave for class, but Chifuyu stopped him, telling him to stay in his seat. She left for a short while, leaving him alone in the lecture hall, he could hear and feel his heart beating from the nerves.

"Everything is out now, I have nothing left to hide" He thought to himself, he felt a weight off his shoulders, even with the current situation at hand, he could breathe easy.

The door at the top of the hall swung open, a loud angry Cecilia came barging in.

"WHERE IS HE? I'LL KILL HIM" she screamed, noticing him out of the corner of her eye she stormed towards him.

"Cecilia..." Kai started, but Cecilia was having none of it, she slapped him hard on the face, forcefully turning his head before she heard anything he had to say.

"Why? Why didn't you tell us? Why _COULDN'T _you tell us? WHY DID YOU LIE?" She said, the tears streaming down her eyes.

"Cecilia!" the others shouted as they ran towards her, Chifuyu walking behind.

"Please, control yourself" Charlotte said hugging her, passing a glare at Kai, who was still looking at the ground, his cheek red and sore.

"So Kai, you have some explaining to do, why didn't you tell us?" Lin said crossing her arms, she was near the point of beating him with her own IS.

"I... I wanted to tell you guys, but I thought it would change everything, you wouldn't see me as a friend, but more of an abomination" he replied quietly taking a seat.

"I think we're all more upset that you didn't tell us, we could've worked together to sort this mess out a lot easier than it's panned out now" Charlotte said still hugging a sobbing Cecilia.

"You see Kai, this is why you don't keep secrets, especially from the ones you call family" she said dryly.

"I've brought the girls with me to count the votes, you can join in if you like" Chifuyu said walking over to the table.

Kai said nothing, he felt nothing, he wanted to be nothing. The pain he felt after killing Scarlett was nothing compared to the pain he was feeling after making one of his friends cry, something inside of him died a little, he couldn't believe what he'd done.

"Hey" A small voice said next to him, breaking him out of his trance. Looking over, it was Houki.

"How're you feeling?" She kept the questions simple, placing her hand on his.

"I know... this is hard for you, it is for them too, they couldn't believe they'd been lied too, like a betrayal of trust" she said leaning on his shoulder.

"You don't think I know that?" he replied taking his hand out from under Houki's.

"I could kill her a thousand times over Houki, but this is the worst I've ever felt! You think I wanted to make my friends cry, huh? All I want to do, Is help people, but it seems I can't even do that" he replied angrily, he stood up, knocking his chair over and stormed out, keeping his eyes to the ground.

"Houki, leave him be, we've got to count these votes" Charlotte said sternly to her, like a mother telling off a child.

Kai sat on the edge of the roof and took a deep breath, looking down he thought that concrete never looked so soft in his life, with no one around, and no IS, nothing could stop him, would ending his life be easier for everyone else?

"You better not think about doing that" a German accent said behind him.

"What are you doing here Laura?" he asked still looking down.

"We said we were in this together, I'm here... for you" she replied.

"Well, you might as well go, from what I've seen, I'm no good for anyone" he smiled to himself.

He felt something on his collar, a hand? He flew back on to the floor, Laura didn't look it, but damn she was strong. She climbed on top of him, pinning his arms down so he couldn't get up.

"Don't ever say that again, you hear? You're good for me, and that's all I care about right now" she said staring him in the eye.

"It's obvious that they all still care about you, especially Houki, I know about you two" She continued.

"You're mistaken, there's nothing going on" he replied, looking away from her.

"Don't treat me like an idiot Kai, anyone could see that there's something going on between you two" She said tightening her grip on his wrists.

"Then why are you here? Why are you here and not her?" He said in retaliation.

"Because for the first time in a long time, you've made me feel wanted" She replied quietly.

Kai didn't know how to respond, he wanted to argue that she was wrong, that she was being an idiot, but the emotion in her voice, and the way she looked at him made it feel too genuine.

"You can get off me now" He said quietly.

She took her hands off of him, leaving him free to lean up, but she continued to sit on his lap so he couldn't stand.

"But what about Cecilia? And Charlotte? I'm sure they hate me for lying to them, it feels like they care more about that than the fact I might be sent away" he said quietly.

"It doesn't matter what they say, people get caught up in the heat of the moment, they still care Kai, and I'm pretty sure Miss Orimura cares a little too" She smiled.

"Maybe Chifuyu does care, I mean, she only let me in because she thought I was some sort of replacement for her brother" Kai thought to himself.

Laura's phone started buzzing in her pocket, flipping it open she'd received a text from Lin.

"You guys need to head back to the Hall, class ends soon and they're going to announce the results" Laura read out loud.

"Lets head back then" Kai said.

"Well, before we go.." Laura lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him passionately, Kai was taken off guard. It wasn't long before Laura pulled away.

"I'm sorry, but sometimes I can't help myself" She said licking her lips.

"You've got to stop doing that, if Houki finds out.." He started.

"_IF _she finds out, I guess I'll just fight her for possession of you" she joked.

"Why does she do this so freely? If she likes me, she can just come out and say it, if I get the chance to stay, I'll ask her about it" Kai thought.

She extended a hand and helped Kai up, it didn't take long for them to stroll back to the Hall and get back to their seats. The envelopes were neatly stacked, the girls and Chifuyu were in a circle discussing something.

"Welcome back, have you calmed down?" Chifuyu asked Kai.

"Uh yeah, I'm sorry about that" he replied, not looking at Houki.

"The students should be here soon, lets take our seats" said Charlotte.

One by one, all the students piled back into the Lecture Hall, all chatting about the outcome.

"Attention students, we have the result, so if you'd all like to shut up we can tell you" Chifuyu demanded, getting bored waiting for them all to be quiet.

"We've counted, and re-counted the votes, but it seems we have a problem, exactly half of the school wants Kai to stay, and be the schools protector, and the other half want him to go, so here what we suggest" Chifuyu stepped down.

Kai was a little upset that half the school wanted him gone, but still happy that people actually wanted him to stay. Lin arose from her seat, and took the stage.

"Hello everyone, as you know my name is Lin, and I hold the number 4 spot on the IS Elite, a prestigious group of which Kai is part of, considering the current events and the dilemma that has just been brought upon us, here is my suggestion. To make sure Kai is fit to stay in the school, and protect it from any other Future Genetic threats, he is to fight me 1 on 1, this will also count as an Elite match, so if he is to win, not only will he get to stay, he will also advance a rank, and take my place as number 4, and to top it off, it'll happen right now" she explained.

Kai was shocked, she'd really put her position on the line like that? She must be crazy! The room was buzzing with excitement, the students and teachers both discussing who will win, they'd never seen Lin fight, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for them. Lin turned to him with the microphone.

"So Kai, we got a deal?"


	9. Summer Days

**Hi guys, I'm sad to say this story is coming to an end pretty soon, I've only got a few chapters left in mind, so if any of you enjoy my work, please let me know what you'd like me to write about next and I'll do my best, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

**Infinite Stratos Elite Chapter 9**

Kai felt the tension in the air, the crowds were screaming but to him everything was silent, his opponent Lin stood not to far from him in the other side of the arena. It wasn't long ago that he was sat in the Lecture Hall when she challenged him, not only for the position of number 4, but to stay in the Academy and have all accusations of Scarlett's murder cleared.

"Are you ready?!" Lin shouted to him.

"Uh, yeah" Kai trembled, to be honest he was slightly scared to go back into his IS.

Lin deployed her IS, a bright flash of purple radiated from her, as it faded her IS was revealed. It was a dark purple with a black detailing, with two pod like objects behind her shoulders, both of which Kai had never seen before. He quickly deployed his IS too.

"I think everyone watching is in for a good fight, both of our IS's are used in close combat" She remarked.

"Although I'm still a little nervous getting back into my IS, I'm not going easy on you" Kai said deploying his swords, trying to maintain a focused mind.

"Keep in mind what's at stake here, deploy Souten Gagetsu!" Lin shouted, holding our her arms two scimitar-like weapons formed, she forced the two handles together to form the single weapons into a double bladed variant.

Her thrusters kicked in as she powered towards Kai with blinding speed, holding her weapon forcing a blade forwards, the intent of stabbing at Kai. He tried strafing to his right but she flicked the staff around sending the other blade flying to his face, the IS's safety precautions kicked in, shielding his face from the blow but causing sufficient damage to his shield nonetheless.

Kai brought both swords over heard for a double hit, but she blocked both swords with her weapon, without a second thought she swept her legs around knocking him on his back, quickly she thrusted her blade into his chest, he caught it just before it made impact.

"Is that it? You want to be protector of the school, yet you cant even beat a girl half your size?" She mocked him.

Kai couldn't help but to admit he was in a bit of trouble, he could feel the blade slipping through his IS's grip, he could hear the students chanting her name. Both his swords were reachable, but letting go meant a swift end to the battle, her previous attack already did a number on him. He devised a plan, it would be risky but it'd be the only means of escape.

He kicked Lin up in the air using his IS's strength, and as he thought she was still holding on to her weapon, so he twisted it in her grip, she had no choice but to let go, she recovered and used her thrusters to speed into the sky. He tossed her weapon aside, he picked his swords up and chased after her, she was defenceless, or so he thought. She soared into the sky, her thrusters just about beating Kai's in speed, she turned on him as he was making his ascent and fired her impact cannons, making Kai spin and twist just to avoid being slammed back down to earth.

"What?! She's got long range weapons too?!" He thought. Trying to avoid projectiles and think was quite difficult when put into practice.

"Right, maybe if I get around her, I can attack without getting hit by those cannons" Kai said to himself, although he didn't want to admit it, he was having fun, after everything that had happened, he was glad he could have a kind-of normal fight.

Kai reached the same altitude as Lin, but didn't waste any time in trying to flank her, twisting and turning around her to get her disorientated. He was finally behind her as he charged in for an attack, but as he got into sword range, her cannons did a full 180 spin and fired, both projectiles hitting. Although Lin fired them, she didn't know how close he was, the blast radius also hit her IS and knocked her cannons offline, but her thrusters were still operational.

Kai was knocked unconscious, mere meters from the ground, he came too in the last second, his IS recognized him as operational and shut down the safety precaution protecting him from fall damage, leaving him to take a big hit to the shields. Lin landed not that far from him and collected her weapon, she waved to the crowd, they went mental thinking she won, she too also thought it was over, only to be taken by surprise, she was launched across the arena by something.

After the dust and dirt had cleared, Kai was once again standing, but his IS had changed, instead of going full Burst Mode, the left side of his IS, up to the red stripe, had partially deployed Burst Mode, granting him access to his Hand Cannon Revolver.

"Don't think you've won yet, I've got plenty of fight left in me" He laughed.

"Hmph, that's a strong weapon, but that's going to get you nowhere" She said angrily getting up, she started walking towards him spinning her weapon skilfully.

Kai too advanced towards her, changing his Revolver for his Lance, it was only fair if they were on equal playing field. Kai's IS was quite a sight, Gold and White one half, black on the other, only separated by a single red strip, like evil and good in one.

The crowd only got louder and louder for their final confrontation, they both only had enough shield to defend one small hit, anything else would be too much and their IS's would shut down.

"Are you ready? It's do or die" Lin asked.

"I'm ready for anything" Kai smiled.

Once again, Lin charged with her weapon pointing forward, but Kai had learnt his lesson, there's not way to avoid her attack, her melee range was too much, so obviously the only way, was forward. Kai activated his thrusters, heading straight for Lin. This threw her off a bit, and in her nervousness she attacked way too early, Kai slid under her IS, grabbing hold of her weapons mid-section, he pulled back on the weapon and kicked her into the air, and before she could recover with her thrusters he directed his speed upwards and hit her straight in the gut with his Lance.

She fell to the ground as her display quickly counted down to zero and a small 'Loser' appeared. Kai recalled his weapons, looking around he could make out shocked faces on everyone, the arena was completely silent. One girl started clapping, then another, and another, before he knew it the whole arena was chanting his name and clapping. He was finally accepted by them, not only that, he was official IS Elite Rank 4.

Recalling his IS, he walked over to Lin who was still laying on the ground, at first he was worried, but that washed away when he saw her peak over her shoulder at him and quickly turn back.

"Lin, you don't look hurt, c'mon get up" He said holding out a hand.

"...No" She replied like a sad kid.

"Why won't you get up? You're making me look like an idiot" He said kneeling next to her.

"It...it...it's just... I WANT YOU TO CARRY ME OUT LIKE YOU DID WITH CECILIA!" She cried.

"But, you're not hu-" Kai started.

"I DON'T CARE, CARRY ME OUT OR IM STAYING RIGHT HERE" she said crossing her arms like a spoilt child.

Kai didn't see any other way out of the situation, it wasn't like it was hard for him, it was just unnecessary hassle.

"Alright, whatever helps you sleep at night" he said under his breath.

He slid his hands under Lin's back and bottom, accidentally copping a feel, Lin glared at him, but he just passed it off like it didn't happen. Everyone was already clearing out of the arena and back into class, but the rest of the Elite stayed, and was kind of shocked at what he was doing. Lin on the other hand was in a whole different world, she felt like a princess the way he was carrying her so easily.

They walked back into the school and met with the others, Lin jumped out of Kai's arms to run and hug Cecilia, tears of happiness in her eyes.

"Oh my god, I know what it feels like to be carried by a prince, it was amazing" she cried.

Cecilia and Lin started comprising notes on how he held them, and how long he carried them for, both crying with joy.

"What's up with them?" Charlotte asked.

"Lin said she wouldn't come out of the arena if I didn't carry her like I did Cecilia, so I gave in so she wouldn't cause a scene" He replied his face in his hand.

"Oh that silly girl, oh, Miss Orimura wants you back in the Lecture hall, apparently she has something to announce to everyone" Charlotte replied.

Everyone started walking back to the hall, meeting Laura half way.

"Ah, Nice to see you haven't retreated back to your room" Kai joked.

"Well, apparently Celia has told everyone what you did for me, and no one has said anything bad to me in the whole day!" She said excitedly.

It wasn't long before they reached the hall, Chifuyu was just finishing a small speech.

"Ah, if it isn't the man of the hour, Kai please step down to the podium, there's something you need to do" She asked.

Everyone took their seats and Kai stepped up into the spotlight in front of the entire school with Chifuyu.

"You've made it clear you want to be in the school, not only have you beaten Lin, you've made it to rank 4 in the Elite, so here's a small contract I've written up for you, please read it out loud" She asked stepping back.

Kai picked up the small piece of paper, cleared his throat and started talking into the microphone.

"This contract is to officiate, that I, Kai Hollow will become the protector of the Academy and it's student's against any and all of Future Genetics' plans to attack IS Academy. Any incidents in which Future Genetics harms a Student is my responsibility, and I will take the full consequences that follow" he finished.

"Very well said Mr Hollow, now would you please sign" She asked handing quite a fancy pen.

He'd never written a signature before, so instead of something fancy, he writ quite a rough looking "Kai" on the dotted line.

"So, Kai, you're willing to do anything? Whatever it takes?" Chifuyu asked holding out her hand.

"Whatever it takes" he replied, strongly taking her hand, the whole room exploded into applause, he was their official protector, even the Elite were clapping, passing cheesy grins his way.

A couple weeks had passed since the Scarlett incident and summer break had rolled round, Kai and the others went on about their lives, hanging out, studying even Kai's and Houki's relationship progressed to the point where they felt comfortable enough and told the rest of the Elite. Cecilia and Lin were heartbroken, both trying to convince Kai they'd be the better choice, which in turn made Houki mad at them until they backed off. Kai wanted to challenge Houki, but it'd be unfair as she doesn't have a personal IS. But Kai was suspicious though, Future Genetics hadn't tried anything in a while, it seemed his newly earned title meant nothing, but of course, the peace couldn't last forever.

"Mr President, are you sure you want to go through with this?" The advisor asked.

"I know you're my advisor, but I know what I'm doing, if violence isn't the answer, then we'll go for a more, subtle approach" he replied, removing the cigar from his mouth to take a swig of his whisky.

The black car pulled in at the tram station, followed by two more. The President stepped out of his car to be instantly surrounded by his guards. Only a few could get on the tram before it reached the weight limit, so he decided to go alone.

"Oh 117, why did you have to cause all of this, everything would have been so much easier if you just came home" He thought.

Kai was chilling in his room in just some shorts, he'd gotten used to the lazy lifestyle, he felt like he deserved a break. Everything was peaceful until Laura walked in loudly talking with Charlotte.

"What the hell guys? I'm trying to chill here!" Kai shouted.

"Don't mind us, we're j-" Charlotte started as she walked in and saw Kai topless, his body was extremely well toned, he'd been working out to be stronger for when he could fight Houki.

"I... Uh I mean.. Um.." Charlotte couldn't get a proper sentence out, she was stunned by his body.

"_WE'RE_ here to hang out too, Chifuyu wanted to see you in her office by the way" Laura laughed.

"Did she say what it was about?" Kai asked sliding off his bed, Charlotte still staring at him.

"Not really, I'd assume it's fairly important, don't keep her waiting" Laura replied sitting down on her bed.

"Is.. Is she ok?" Kai asked slipping on some shoes and throwing a t-shirt over his shoulder.

"She'll be fine, WONT YOU CHARLOTTE" She shouted snapping her out of the trance.

"Uh.. yes, I'm fine, god Kai have some decency and put a shirt on" Charlotte said blushing.

Kai was already out of the room before she could finish her sentence, he slowly strolled down the hallways and down stairs headed to Chifuyu's office. Some of the students went home for the summer, but the majority stayed to be with friends and catch up with some work. Walking through the main hallway girls were caught off guard by him, they didn't know he was like that with his shirt off.

"Kai, we should study together sometime"

"Kai please, can we have a battle soon? I'll let you train me however you like"

"Kai, are you single? I'm single!"

These were some of the things some of the girls shouted at him, he had to admit though, it was nice to be getting some good attention for once. He arrived at Chifuyu's door, giving it a small knock he heard "come in" from her inside. He walked in to see Chifuyu talking to a man who was turned away from him.

"Please Kai, have some respect for our guest, put your shirt on" she asked glaring at him.

He quickly slid the t-shirt on, but his eyes widened when he looked back up, his heart pounding out of his chest, his palms sweating profusely. The man she was talking to had turned to greet him, it was him, the President of Future Genetics.

"This is Mr Hagayi, he's donated a large amount of money to IS Academy over these past few years, he likes to visit every so often, and he was excited to hear we have the only male student" Chifuyu explained.

"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Orimura here says your name is, Kai?" He smiled holding a hand out to him.

Kai was in shock, he was here, why was he here? What did he want? He struggled believing that the president of Future Genetics was stood in front of him, and he couldn't do anything about it.

"Kai, stop being rude and shake the man's hand" Chifuyu instructed.

Kai rubbed his hand on his shorts to clean the sweat, and held it out, Mr Hagayi leaned forward and took his hand suddenly.

"Ah, a nice firm handshake, I like that!" He smiled.

"I.. I've got to go.. I need to do... something" Kai managed.

"Oh that's a shame, oh well, I'm sure it's important, I hope we get talk again soon!" My Hagayi said again, with that forced smile.

Kai stepped out and gently closed the door, he could feel his body covered in sweat, the adrenaline was pumping through him. He could've done it, there and then he could have ended it. He walked outside for some fresh air, he sat down on the nearest bench. About 30 minutes passed when he heard a familiar voice, one he didn't want to hear.

"Kai" Mr Hagayi, The President addressed him.

"What the fuck you do want?" Kai glared at him.

"As you've probably worked it, this wasn't a social call, I've come to see you" He replied.

"Well, I don't want to see you, I suggest you leave before I do something I probably won't regret" Kai said standing up.

"It's obvious force won't get you back, as you've already proven, and you've grown a lot quicker than we thought you would, it's quite remarkable" Hagayi smiled, pulling out a cigar.

"I don't care what you think, just fucking leave" Kai started walking back into the building.

"I don't think your Mother would appreciate that kind of language, would you?"

Hagayi took a puff.

That word stopped Kai in his tracks, Mother? He didn't have one, his whole life he was told he didn't have any family. The President smiled, he knew that'd get his attention.

"Y..You're lying" Kai said not turning to him.

"Am I?" Hagayi replied, throwing a small gold locket at Kai's feet.

He picked it up and flicked it open, there was a picture of him as a baby, with a lady he's never been before.

"Mom?" He said quietly tears falling down his cheeks.

"That's right, your mother is back at the labs, we've been running very crucial experiments on her, even to the point where she begs us to kill her" Hagayi laughed.

By the time the President had opened his eyes from laughing, Kai had partially deployed his left hand in Burst Mode, holding his revolver point blank in his face, squeezing the locket in his right hand to the point were the glass cracked.

"So this is burst mode hm? When I had the scientist include this in your IS, I didn't think it'd actually work, it's quite a spectacle in person" He said taking another puff of his cigar.

Kai remained silent, he had nothing to say.

"So what now? You're going to kill me? We both know you don't have the balls to do it, it's simple, you return to Future Genetics and become our little play thing again, and we let your mother go, Think about it" He said turning and walking back to the station.

Kai just stood there with his weapon drawn, not taking the barrel away from Hagayi's head. His breathing accelerated, the gun in his hand started shaking, his other hand dripping with blood as the glass he cracked earlier had completely shattered and cut his palm. Cecilia was walking back from shopping when she saw him in the state he was, she ran up to him, seeing the blood and the tears rolling down his face.

"Kai, Kai are you ok? Talk to me what's happened?" She said dropping her bags and placing her hands on his face trying to snap him back into reality.

"It.. It wa-... My.. I have a..." Kai managed, he couldn't take everything in, he was having a hard time trying to process everything that had happened.

"Look Kai, I don't know what's happened but you need to put your weapon away, and we need to get you to medical for that cut" she said placing a hand on his deployed arm, slowly pushing it down till he finally recalled it.

"C..Cecilia?" Kai said looking at her.

"Yes Kai, I'm here" She smiled back.

Kai leant forward and hugged her tight, she was taken by surprise but hugged him back.

"We need to go to medical, are you ok?" She asked into his shoulder.

"Y..Yeah, Can you come with me though?" He asked.

"Of course sweetie, I'll put these bags in at the main office and we'll go okay?" She smiled pulling away.

They both walked through the school, Kai's hand leaving a small trail of blood, Cecilia sent a text to the others as soon as they reached medical.

"This could take a while, we need to run an x-ray on his hand to get all of the glass out, this was in his hand, maybe you know what it is?" The nurse asked Cecilia, passing her a blood covered locket.

Cecilia sat down in the waiting room to inspect the locket when the others, including Laura, came running through the doors.

"What's happened? Where is he?" They all said over and over, dying to get an answer.

Cecilia calmed them and told them everything, about how she just got back from shopping and found him there, partially deployed crying and holding the locket.

"That's strange, I guess we'll have to ask him when he comes out" Charlotte said crossing her arms.

"IF you can keep your eyes off his muscles" Laura joked.

"What do you mean?" Houki said swiftly, glaring at Charlotte.

"N..Nothing really" Charlotte replied holding up her hands defensively, annoyed that Laura sold her out like that.

"What are you guys arguing about now?" Kai said jokingly behind them all.

"N..Nothing, Kai, stay out of it" Houki said still glaring at Charlotte, then it finally clicked.

She jumped up and hugged him, crushing his right hand with her breasts.

"Houki, Houki back it up a bit please" He said in pain.

"Oh sorry, are you ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, my hand will heal in about an hour so it's all good, also, thanks Cecilia, for being there" He smiled at her, making Cecilia blush and bury her face into her hands.

"Oh it's fine, of course it's a lady's duty to help those in need" She smiled.

"Hey guys, I just got an Email from Chifuyu" Lin said pulling out her phone.

"Message to all students remaining in IS Academy for the Summer Break, the teachers will be taking a trip to the beach tomorrow, so if anyone would like to come, meet us in front of the main entrance at 10:30am sharp. -Chifuyu Orimura" Lin read out.

All of the girls faces lit up, a day at the beach! Kai on the other hand was happy that he'd get some peace and quiet. All the girls were chatting about swimsuits, and what colours go with what, all apart from Laura, Kai took a seat next to her.

"Why aren't you joining in? I'm sure you're hyped for this too?" He smiled.

"Not really, I won't be going, no one makes fun of me here, but what about in public? I'll get mocked for my eye patch" She said looking down, placing a hand on her eye.

Kai too her hand away from her eye and squeezed it tight;

"We said we'd be there for each other, so if anyone wants to talk bad about you, they'll have to answer to me" He smiled, there goes his quiet day of napping.

Laura put her hands around his neck and gave him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek, luckily Houki didn't see otherwise she would've gone mental.

"I'm headed back to my room and I'm going to leave you guys to it, oh, did the nurse give you something Cecilia?" Kai asked walking towards her.

"Oh yeah, this locket" She said passing it to him.

"Thanks, you coming Laura?" He asked walking out the door, she was quick to follow.

Kai collapsed on his bed, undoing the bandage on his hand he saw the healing was coming along nicely.

"So, why did you have to go to medical?" Laura asked sliding on a vest and shorts.

"I saw him Laura, the president of Future Genetics was here... and I shook his hand" He said looking at his hand, he was filled with disgust.

"Really? Why didn't you do anything?" She said picking up her journal.

"I couldn't not after the Scarlett incident, but his time will come, trust me" He replied clenching his fist.

That night Kai couldn't sleep, he was trying to think of a reason of why The president was there, he wanted to tell Chifuyu about him, but she'd probably not believe him.

"He'll definitely get his, the day will come when it's him on the end of my sword" he thought to himself, as he turned to go to sleep.

"How did it go sir? Did he fall for the bait" The Advisor asked.

The president turned in his chair, taking a swig of whiskey.

"Yes, I don't think it'll be long before he either turns himself in, or stages a rescue, either way we need to be ready, make sure we're always on high alert, report any disturbances straight to me. You're dismissed for the night" He replied pouring himself another.

"Yes sir, have a good night" The advisor bowed and walked out.

"Come on now 117, don't leave me waiting".

Kai was snoring away, falling half off his bed, everyone had already gotten up and was ready to head to the beach, all they were waiting for was him.

"Is he up?" Houki asked Laura.

"I don't know, I gave him a nudge and he made a weird noise, so I left him there" She replied.

"This is getting us nowhere, I'll go in and get him" Charlotte said headed for the door, only to be blocked by Houki.

"I know you just want to see him half naked again" She said spitefully.

"When are you going to let this go? He was wearing shorts as me and Laura went it to his room" she said, her face buried in her hand.

"And you Laura? I expected more from you!" Houki shouted, getting flustered.

"Hey, we're room mates, we've both seen each other naked loads of times" She said casually.

The girls faces went blank, they can't believe what they'd just heard.

"N..Naked, you.. you've seen him naked?" Houki managed, she was both upset and angry.

Cecilia and Lin pulled her aside, and started whispering;

"You can fill us in with the details on the train, ok?"

"Details?" She replied confused.

"Yeah, the... _long_ details" Cecilia winked.

"OH MY GOD STOP IT" Houki shouted in anger.

"Guys, can you keep it down, people are trying to sleep" Kai said opening the door in anger.

All of the girls turned to him, he was only wearing underwear, they we're all stunned at his muscular figure.

"What? Is there something on my chest?" He asked.

"No no no, your chest is perfect, I.. I mean" Lin started.

"It's just that we're waiting for you to come, I mean, to come with us to the beach" Cecilia butted in.

"Oh right, I forgot, give me half an hour to get ready, yeah?" he asked closing the door in their faces.

Kai sighed, he really did want a day to laze around and sleep, but this seemed unavoidable. He had a quick shower and slid on some shorts and a t-shirt, not bothering to dry his hair, it'd dry soon enough. Him and the girls met with the teachers and about 30 other students outside, it didn't take long to get to the beach, a short tram ride to the city, then from the city to the beach on the train.

Kai sat alone in the back of the train, he watched the scenery pass by as the others were chatting away about what they're going to do at the beach, but his mind was elsewhere.

"Do I really have a mother? It can't be, it must be a trick to get me to go there" he thought to himself.

Laura noticed him alone, she wanted to go and talk to him, but she knew they'd get no time to talk in private, because as far as the others were concerned, she was given the eye as she had an accident when she was younger, and only just learnt of Future Genetics.

The train pulled in at the station and everyone piled out, it was only a small walk to the beach, but still Kai's mind was thinking about his maybe mother.

"Hey, are you ok? You seem distant" Houki asked taking hold of his hand.

"Oh it's nothing, I've just been thinking about our future together" He lied, he'd rather keep Houki happy rather than dragging her into his problems.

"You're such a cutie, you know that?" She replied, planting a small kiss on his cheek.

Most of the girls and the teachers saw her display of affection.

But to be honest, Kai's feelings started fading for Houki, he just didn't feel the same as he did when he first met her.

"Miss Shinonono, please keep things like that to a minimal, we're here to have fun, not play tongue tennis" she said in her usual monotone voice.

They arrived at the beach, the sun lit up the sands like it was gold, and the beautiful blue sea gently went to and fro up the sands.

All the girls rushed too the changing rooms, Kai however headed down the beach, he agreed to come on the trip, but that wouldn't deny him his peace and quiet. Laura was the first to step out of the small hut, catching a glimpse of Kai turning the nearby cliff and around the corner. It wasn't long before the others stepped out of their huts, all wearing bikini's, the colours matching their IS's.

"Where's Kai? I've been dying to show off my bikini body to him for a while now" Cecilia complained.

"If anything, he'd be looking at me!" Lin shouted proudly stepping out of her changing room.

Cecilia burst into fits of laughter, and the others laughed a little too. Lin wasn't the biggest girl around, in height and in bust, she didn't come close to Houki or Cecilia.

"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS LAUGHING ABOUT? SMALL IS CUTE!" She shouted angrily.

"But really, where has he gone? He's not with the others" Houki said worried.

"I'll go look for him, we are room mates after all" Laura said stretching.

"Just drop us a text if you find him, I'm going to be sunbathing anyway" Cecilia said, picking up her bag of lotions and her big blue umbrella.

Laura headed the same way Kai went, around the cliff at the edge of the beach, what she found was Kai napping, using his folded up t-shirt as a pillow, he was in a little sandy gap in the cliff. She walked over to him and sat next to him.

"What do you want Laura?" Kai asked keeping his eyes closed.

"How did you know it was me?" She asked.

"I could detect your Nanomachines before you even came round the corner" He replied smiling.

"Anyway what are you doing on your own, don't you want to hang out with the others?" She asked, playing with the sand.

"I will later, I just want some time to think at the moment" He sighed.

"What about? Is it something I can help with?" She asked leaning to him.

Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out the now clean locket, and passed it to Laura.

"When I met the President yesterday, he gave me this, he said it's me and my mother" He said opening his eyes.

"But, I thought you said you didn't have family?" Laura said shocked.

"That's what I thought, but apparently they've been keeping her captive, until I go back" He said sitting up.

"It's got to be a trap, I don't trust them, and neither should you" Laura said.

"Maybe you're right, but I've got to see for myself sometime" Kai said hitting his head back down into his folded shirt.

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do to get your mind off of this and come back to the main beach with us?" Laura said climbing on top of him, resting her chin on his chest and taking off her eye patch.

"If I come with you, will you get off me?" Kai asked rubbing his eyes.

"Maybe" Laura said playfully.

Kai grabbed Laura under the arms and pulled her up, face to face with him, he lent in and kissed her, forcing his tongue inside her mouth. They remained like it for a few minutes.

"You got what you wanted, can you get off me now?" Kai asked sarcastically.

Laura slid off him and they got up to join the others, Laura's face red with excitement.

"I just wanted to hug for a little bit, but he kissed me.. _he _kissed _me_" she thought to herself as they walked back.

"Hey guys, sorry I disappeared, I tried to sneak in a quick nap" he lied.

After getting a lecture from Houki, most of the girls wanted Kai to apply their suntan lotion and play games with them, they all wanted his attention, trying their best to get him to like them. Cecilia even went so far as to ask him to rub oil on her chest. Houki of course wasn't too happy about any of this.

After a long day in the sun and zero napping, Kai's head finally hit his pillow back at IS Academy, it had been a long day, and all he wanted to do was sleep. Laura walked out of the bathroom brushing her hair and saw Kai was already trying to sleep, but she had to ask.

"Uh Kai" she said in a small voice.

"What's up?" He replied turning to her, not opening his eyes.

"Back at the beach, all I wanted was to hug you a little, why did you kiss me?" She blushed.

"It's.. being around you it feels like when me and Houki first met, that magic, I just don't feel it with her, she's possessive, it feels like she's always breathing down my neck all the time" He sighed.

"So, does that mean you.. love me?" Laura said squeezing her pillow.

Kai was silent for a few seconds before he smiled, it was quite visible to Laura.

"...Goodnight Laura" He ended, turning away from her.

She too turned over and hugged her pillow, happy with his answers.

It was only at 7am the next day a massive disturbance rattled the academy, Chifuyu rushed to Kai's room and kicked in the door, grabbing him by the shoulders she was rushing to get him awake.

"Miss... Orimura? What's going on? Why are you here?" He said drowsily.

"Get up now, our scanners picked something up entering the academy's vicinity, it's time to prove yourself" she finished slapping him awake.

Kai didn't have time to dress properly, so throwing on some clothes and slipping on some shoes, they both ran to the arena, Chifuyu split off to head to the observation deck as Kai walked out into the arena in just his shorts and t-shirt.

"We picked it up about 10 minutes ago, we can't assume it's nothing, it's Future Genetics attacking again, it's entering from the sky, ready up" Chifuyu said over the speakers.

Kai deployed his IS as a small bright light pierced the clouds, it finally touched down in the arena, crating a strong force wave, Kai had to hold onto a sword slammed into the ground to stop from being forced to the wall. When the dust cleared he couldn't believe his eyes, a large orange pod had fallen from orbit, it looked like.. a carrot. This didn't deter him from his objective, no matter what it was he had to eliminate it.

The pod opened, but before he could react a bolt of electricity shot out from the darkness of the pod, hitting his IS in the chest, he collapsed to the floor, his HUD was freaking out, his IS status and Shield display started fading, he could feel his IS shutting down. Looking up from all fours he could see someone walking towards him, they had something weird atop their head, then they spoke.

"Hey there! My name is Tabane Shinonono, nice to meet you!"


	10. Heartbreak

**Infinite Stratos Elite Chapter 10**

"And who might you be?!" Tabane asked enthusiastically kneeling down by his head.

Kai was still on all fours, the electricity was still overloading his IS, causing him too much pain to talk.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that, let me help you out!" She said jumping up.

Tabane pulled out what looked like a little wand from her cleavage and placed it on Kai's back, miraculously all the electricity exited his body, leaving him to slowly stand up, recovering from the pain.

"Wait a minute, you're not a girl! How strange!" She said jumping around him, inspecting his IS.

"Wait, HOLD ON A SECOND!" Kai shouted to get her attention, she stopped and sat on his IS's shoulder.

"You said your last name is Shinonono right? Does that mean you're Houki's mom or something?" He asked, already annoyed at her behaviour.

"No, not mother, I'm her sister silly!" She announced.

Kai sighed as he felt his IS freak out once more, turning to Tabane he saw she plugged a small device into his armour, making his IS recall itself, they both fell to the floor, Tabane falling on top of Kai.

"Oh my, I don't think this should continue, but it's been a while since I've had a boyfriend" She moaned slightly in his ear.

When Kai came to his senses, he realised he was groping one of her breasts, he had to admit she was very well endowed, but pulled away quickly, causing Tabane to moan a little more.

"I have to admit, we've just met but I like you" She winked.

"Tabane, please get off my student" Chifuyu ordered.

"CHIFUYU!" She shouted happily as she ran at her, arms open for a hug, only to be met head on with Chifuyu's fist.

"Y..You've never been the hugging type" Tabane dazedly said falling to the floor.

"Miss Orimura, she deactivated my IS, I can't get it back online" Kai said standing up.

"Well, she is the inventor of the IS, so I should imagine she can do what she wants with it" She replied pulling out her pulling out her phone.

"Don't worry sweetie, it'll wear off soon, I just wanted to see if you we're a girl, all that long brown hair kind of makes you look like one" Tabane shot up and explained, Kai taking slight offence to her comment.

Chifuyu called up her assistant, and told her to get Houki to meet them in her office in 20 minutes, they started walking back into the school when Tabane locked arms with Kai, and bombarded him with questions.

"So, how comes you're a boy and can pilot an IS?" she asked first.

"It's a long story" He replied annoyed.

"Where did you get your personal IS?" She continued.

"A friend" He replied, bored of her questions.

"Does this tag contain your IS?" she asked pulling at his tag.

"So why was you up so early? Surely a boy of your age needs sleep?" She asked, poking his cheek.

"I'd throw this woman out the window if it meant I could get back to bed" Kai thought to himself.

It wasn't long before they got to Chifuyu's office, but to Kai it felt like an eternity, he could still be asleep at this ungodly hour, but no, he had to act as a protector against something that wasn't even a threat.

"She's still not here, I'm going to go find Houki, let yourselves in and make yourselves comfortable, I won't be long" Chifuyu said walking down the hallway.

Kai clicked open the door, but Tabane barged past him and jumped on the sofa.

"Won't you join me Kai? I've got something to tell you" She asked flirtatiously.

"It's too fucking early for this" Kai said under his breath as he slumped down on the sofa.

As soon as his back hit the sofa, Tabane jumped onto his lap in the riding position.

"I know about you Kai, I hacked into their systems, I've seen the Future Genetics reports, I know every.. little.. detail" She said getting closer to his face with every word.

"Then, why did you ask me all those questions?" He asked, trying to pull his head back, but it was already resting against the wall.

"I just wanted to see how easily you'd give up the information, tell me.. what do you plan to do about Future Genetics? I'm sure you've got something up that sleeve of yours" She asked tracing a finger up and down his stomach, following the lines of his abs.

"I want to take them down, but..." He began.

"But what sweetie?" She asked smiling, her robotic rabbit ears flapping up and down.

"I'm not strong enough, I know I'm not strong enough, that's why I'm fighting to be number 1 on the Elite team, I believe when I'm number 1, I'll be ready to take their little organization down, and.." he said.

"And what?" She smiled

"Even though I was made.. they said they have my mother captured, and they won't let her go until I go back, I think it's a trap, but I've got to see, just so I know" He replied quietly.

"I think, no, I _know_ you can do it Kai, when I deactivated your IS, I took a power reading, and it's one of the highest I've seen in a while, not because of the build quality, or because it's offensive capabilities, it's user has the most passion and soul, you fight for a good cause, and I'm going to be behind you every step of the way" she smiled, closing in on his face, she grabbed one of his hands and put it on her breast, their lips about to touch..

"TABANE?! GET OFF OF HIM RIGHT NOW" Houki screamed from behind.

"Oh.. so close, maybe another time sweetie" Tabane smiled, she whispered so only Kai could hear.

Houki stomped over and pulled her sister away, revealing a red faced and confused Kai.

"I'm sorry, she's like this with every new person she meets, she's a genius but she's kind of insane" Houki smiled trying to hold down the wiggling Tabane.

"HEY! I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!" She was like a kid having a tantrum.

"Th..That's fine" Kai managed, coming back to his senses.

Tabane broke free of her sisters grip and stood back up, brushing her long dress down.

"That's not a very nice way to greet your sister! Chifuyu you should keep your students under control" She remarked.

"Why are you here?" Houki asked, placing a hand of her forehead.

"Well, I have a surprise for you little sis!" She beamed "Come with me, follow Tabane!" She hopped out of the room, imitating a rabbit even her ears bounced as she skipped along the halls back down to the arena.

Kai once again walked down the same hallways as earlier, yawning he just wanted to go back to bed, he was contemplating just leaving the group and walking back to his room, but he knew Chifuyu would yell at him.

"So Kai, why are you up?" Houki asked smiling.

"The Academy thought your sister was another attack from Future Genetics, so Miss Orimura woke me up at 7, and here I am" He replied tiredly.

"Oh, I'm sorry about her, it's just..." She replied before Kai held a hand up.

"Save it, I just want to get this done and over with so I can go back to bed" He said grumpily.

"Well there's no need to take that tone with me! It's Tabane's fault, not mine" She replied getting angry at his mood.

"Well, she's here to see you, I'd say that's a strike on your end" he replied rubbing is eyes.

"That's not what it looked like in the office" She said sadly under her breath, she was quite hurt at seeing Kai and Tabane like they were in Chifuyu's office.

Finally arriving at the arena Tabane ran back towards her Carrot-like pod, and ejected a large box.

"Kai sweetie, could you give me a hand" She smiled.

Kai deployed his IS and pushed the box to the centre of the arena, it was a lot heavier than he expected, so pushing it was quite a task, but he didn't want to seem weak in front of the others so he persevered.

"I was made for battle, not manual labour" He thought, breaking a sweat pushing the box.

"Right there will be fine thank you! AND NOW, BEHOLD!" Tabane shouted, she pulled a small remote out of her cleavage, leaving Kai wondering how many things she kept down there.

With a push of the button, the box started ticking.

"Why is it ticking?" Kai asked putting his ear to the box.

"Well, I put a bomb inside for a more explosive entrance!" Tabane twirled an pointed a finger to the sky.

Kai could hear the ticking getting faster, he quickly scooped up Tabane and Houki, setting them down by Chifuyu and shielded them in time as the explosion went off.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Kai shouted at Tabane.

"What?! You can't admit that wasn't cool!" She jumped around like a little kid.

Kai sighed and and stood back up, his IS took minimal damage, but he was more concerned about the others.

"Are you guys ok? Miss Orimura?" he asked.

"I'm fine thank you Kai, I appreciate it" Chifuyu said, _almost_ cracking a smile.

"Thank you" Houki jumped up and kissed his cheek.

"Oh, oh, oh guys, over here!" Tabane bounced by the decimated box.

Stood there was a dark red IS, it looked extremely basic.

"Well... here it is!" Tabane smiled.

"What is it?" Chifuyu asked.

"It's Houki's very own IS! She's been begging for one for a while now, so I made one, I present to you... the Akatsubaki!" Tabane announced.

Houki ran over and hugged her sister, also joining in jumping around with her.

"Well, I'm happy for you guys, but I'm going to head back now, there's a pillow with my name on it" Kai said turning around, just about to recall his IS.

"I hate to follow the crowd, but I'm going too, I've got stuff to do" Chifuyu said following Kai.

"Uh Kai sweetie, just wait a second!" Tabane shouted after him.

Turning, he was surprised to see Tabane jumping at him, causing him to catch her like a princess.

"I'm getting tired of carrying people like this" He thought to himself, sighing.

"To make sure Houki's IS works properly, how about a little sparing match?" She asked, widening her eyes like a child.

"Yeah, that'd be awesome, please Kai?" Houki asked climbing into her IS.

"B..But I just want to go to bed" he said quietly.

"Kai, if you do this for me, I'll take you bed myself" Tabane winked at him.

"I HEARD THAT" Houki shouted at them.

"Look, I'll do it, but you can't keep talking to me like that, you're like twice my age" Kai said blushing.

"Hey! I'm actually-" she tried replying before Houki cut her off.

"Are we doing this or not?!" She asked excitedly.

Kai sighed, there was no way out of this one. Tabane saw the submission in his eyes, and took advantage of this by climbing on his IS's shoulders.

"TO BATTLE MINION" She shouted pointing at Houki.

"Tabane, I can't fight with you up there" He said picking her up and placing her down.

"Alright, let's do this!" He said turning to Houki.

Houki activated her IS, what looked like a simple IS began folding out, the wingspan was incredible.

"So, let's see, what weapons do I have?" She thought to herself.

"Equipping weapons, close range, Twin Katanas" A voice played back to her.

"The Akatsubaki is one of a kind, it's the first IS to have fold out armour so storing it is a breeze, also it recognizes the thoughts of the user, and can out manoeuvre any other IS, in theory anyway" Tabane informed Kai.

He noticed the two swords forming in Houki's hands, finally an equal playing field, no one so far has had just swords, he was looking forward to their sparring match, even if he was tired. Kai deployed his 2 swords, they were much larger and heavier than hers, but that gave her the advantage, her Katana's were light and agile. Houki's IS had finished the initialization process and was ready for action.

"Let's just take it slow ok? Just defend my attacks" Kai said to her, she tried walking but wobbled a little, it was so different from the modified test IS she was previously using.

"Uh, ok come at me, with everything you've got!" Houki asked confidently.

Kai spun the swords in his hand, walking to his right slightly to find the right angle to charge from. Finally he activated his thrusters and charged going for a two-sword stab, Houki prepared to defend but could take the sheer amount of force Kai put behind his attack, sending her flying across the arena.

"Houki, are you ok?" Kai shouted flying over to the downed IS.

"Y..Yeah I'm fine.. I think" She said taking Kai's hand helping her up.

"Wanna' go again?" Kai asked.

"I'm not going to get better with no practice" she smiled.

To Houki it was like learning to pilot an IS from the beginning again, Kai forgot about his day of laying in bed to help her practice. They started with basics, walking, running & flying. Houki had never actually flown as the basic IS didn't have thrusters, so it was quite an experience for her.

"This IS won't work how you want it to unless you devote you body and soul, it's limits are set by the user" Tabane instructed.

Over and over again, Houki fell to Kai's attacks, even the ones he held back on, he was getting annoyed, this was going nowhere fast, he wanted to battle her as soon as possible. The sun beating down on them wasn't helping Kai's mood, it must've been 12pm at least.

"Again" Kai said walking back to his initial attack spot.

"Kai, can't we take a break?" Houki asked out of breath, sitting up on the floor.

"I didn't get a break when you trained me, so no, get up, we'll do it again" he replied in a monotone voice, in all honesty he just wanted to give up and go back to his room, but he couldn't give up if he wanted to be number 3.

"Don't you think you're being a little hard on her?" A voice asked from behind.

Cecilia, Lin & Charlotte had come out to the arena to see what the crashing about was, they were all surprised to see Houki in a custom IS.

"Where did you get that? I love the colour!" Lin said with a sparkle in her eye.

Houki directed her in the direction of Tabane, who was sleeping in the arena on Kai's jacket. They all immediately recognized her and flew into panic.

"I..Is that T..Tabane?" Cecilia said her hand over her mouth.

"Yeah, the one and only" Houki said proudly.

Kai rolled his eyes, but realised the opportunity that had appeared before him.

"Look guys, I'm tired and I'm hungry, could you guys spar with Houki for a bit?" Kai asked yawning.

"Sure, we'll all be glad to help!" Cecilia said deploying her IS, the others following by example and deploying theirs also.

Kai recalled his IS and walked over to Tabane to retrieve his jacket.

"Tabane, wake up I want my jacket back" He asked poking her head.

"Oh Kai.. what are you doing in my room... You shouldn't be here.." she mumbled turning over in her sleep.

Kai didn't want to question what he just heard, so he gently lifted her head and took his jacket, slinging it over his shoulder he knew straight where he was headed, he could hear his pillow calling his name, but his belly was calling for food.

"Fine, lunch then nap" He thought to himself. He paced down the hallways towards the cafeteria, the smell of the food making his hunger worse.

Walking in everyone stared at him, becoming number 4 of the Elite must've caused quite a lot of commotion amongst the students. Brushing it off, he walked over to the counter and filled his tray with plates of food and walked over to a free table, he looked like quite a loner, sat on a semi-circle table on his own.

While eating away at his lunch, he was thinking about Houki and her IS.

"There's no way she'll be ready to fight any time soon, if only there could be some sort of handicap" he closed his eyes and took a mouthful of tea.

It didn't take long for Kai's belly to stop the rumbling, he scoffed down his food at a record pace, sliding out of the table, he made headway towards his room. Opening the door and walking in, he could hear the shower running, dropping his jacket and kicking off his shoes, he fell onto his bed and instantly fell asleep.

A couple hours passed when Kai woke back up, he felt something heavy on his side, turning he saw a half naked Laura clinging on to him, lightly snoring. He poked her cheek trying to wake her up, it took a few tries before he finally just flicked her nose.

"Ow, what the hell?" She said drowsily lifting her head up.

"Your bed not good enough?" Kai asked tapping her nose with his finger.

"Well, I was going to get in with you earlier but you wasn't here" She said quietly under her breath.

"Well I'm here now, uh, can I ask why you're half naked" Kai asked running a hand though his hair yawning.

"Well, I saw you came back when I got out of the shower, but I thought I'd at least put some clothes on, you always freak out when you see someone naked" Laura joked.

"Did you hear? Houki got her own IS" Kai said sitting up.

"Yeah, remember news travels fast" Laura said walking over to her bed to put some clothes on.

"Can I ask you something?" Kai asked swinging his legs off the bed.

"Uh, I guess" Laura replied.

"You seem to know quite a lot about this whole IS Elite mumbo-jumbo, is it possible for someone to have a handicap of some kind during a fight?" Kai asked sliding his shoes back on.

"Why? Scared she's going to beat you" Laura laughed throwing a pillow at his head.

"WHAT? NO! It's just that, Houki isn't used to her new IS yet, and I want to fight her as soon as possible, so would it be ok to fight Houki and Charlotte at the same time? Like support for her?" Kai asked throwing it back.

"Hm, it's not been done before, but I see no reason why they'd be against it" Laura sat on her bed a pondered.

"Cool, I'll go an ask her about it" Kai stood up and walked to the door.

As he opened it, Houki was about to knock the door, she fell forward not expecting it to open.

"Uh, hi?" Kai asked catching her.

"Hi, uh can I ask you something?" Houki asked regaining her footing.

"Uh yeah if you want" Kai replied.

"Well, the thing is.. I need a uniform to match my IS, and the girls offered to come with me into town, but you found your jacket on your own, and well we haven't been on a proper date yet" She finished blushing.

In all honesty, Kai didn't want to go, but he didn't like letting people down, regardless of who they are.

"Yeah, did you want to go now?" Kai asked.

"Y..Yes please" Houki smiled taking his hand.

The walked off down the hallways towards the tram station, all the girls in the hallways were jealous of Houki over the fact that she got to hold Kai's hand.

"Are you ok? You've been off these past couple days" Houki asked as they walked onto the tram.

"Yeah, I've just had a few things on my mind lately, that's all" Kai replied quietly sitting down.

"We are together you know, you can tell me anything" She smiled squeezing his hand.

"Well, do you think we could have an Elite battle soon?" He asked trying to smile.

"Well, I'm not very used to my IS yet, but if that's what you want" She replied.

"But, you'll have a handicap, I want to fight you and Charlotte at the same time" he said.

This was quite a surprise to her, no one had fought 2 of the Elite at the same time.

"If that's what you want then I'll text her and ask" Houki smiled.

Kai didn't respond, he looked at her a smiled. He was thinking about how much he'd prefer to be back at the Academy, with Laura.

"Laura? No I'm with Houki, I love her... I think" He thought to himself gritting his teeth, his conflict of emotions had him on edge.

Kai and Houki walked from shop to shop, looking for the perfect piece of clothing to match Houki's IS, which in it's recalled form was a pair of small bells on a bit of ribbon on Houki's hand. They were coming to the end of the strip, when something caught Houki's eye in a small yet crowded shop. A small, waist-high dark pink jacket with black detailing was sat on a rail outside. Houki ran over a tried it on.

"What do you think?!" She excitedly asked.

"It looks nice, did you want to get it?" Kai asked.

"I want to try some other things on, c'mon lets look inside" She dragged him in.

She picked up a few pairs of jeans and some new underwear and ran over to the changing rooms, it was quite a wait as people were rushing in and out of them, but one finally freed up on the end. Houki slipped in, but after a couple of minutes she grabbed Kai's arm and pulled him in. Kai blushed as she was just wearing her underwear.

"What do you think?" she asked red faced.

"It.. it's uh.. I'm sure I shouldn't be in here" Kai said quietly.

"But.. I've always wanted to try this" She said kissing him, she took one of his hands and placed in on her breast, she was forceful like her sister.

Kai kissed back, but in his mind he was thinking it was Laura, why couldn't he get her out of his head? He gently pulled Houki away from.

"Houki.. I'm sorry I can't, I need some time alone" He said looking down.

"Kai, Kai please tell me what's up" She asked taking his hand.

He was already walking out, being careful not to let anyone see inside the small booth, leaving Houki behind. He walked slowly to the hill in the park him and the others sat on when he first got his jacket. He slumped down and leant against the tree.

"What's wrong with me? I just don't see her the same way anymore" He said to himself.

"See who the same way?" A voice fairly close to him asked.

"It's none of your business, who is that anyway?" he asked agitated that someone was listening in on him.

"HEADS UP!" the voice shouted. Looking up Kai saw the robotic eared woman fall out of the tree, he quickly stood up and caught her.

"You're good at this" She winked at him.

"What do you want Tabane? I'm really not in the mood" He said setting her down, and sitting back down next to the tree.

"Well, I've been tailing you since you got here, but that's irrelevant, what I'm concerned about is you and Houki, I assume this is what this is about" she said smiling, setting herself down on Kai's lap.

"I take it you know about us?" Kai said, adjusting himself to get comfortable.

"We're sisters, the moment she was alone she told me when you asked her" Tabane replied playing with the grass.

"Well the thing is, I just don't feel the same about her like I did when we first met" Kai said sadly.

"These things happen Kai, you've done well adjusting to life outside that lab, but there's still so much you have to learn" she replied, crawling up to the tree to sit next to Kai, leaning on his shoulder.

"Then what do I do? I can't leave things like this" He said watching her robotic ears flap up and down on their own accord, they still weirded him out.

"Just tell her the truth, she'll understand" Tabane smiled.

Kai's phone started buzzing, Charlotte was calling him.

"Yeah what's up?" He asked.

"Who is it?" Tabane asked.

"Houki's just got back to Academy in tears, what's happened?" Charlotte asked.

"It's a long story Charlotte, I'll tell you when I get back ok?" he replied sighing.

"Is it Charlotte? HI CHARLOTTE!" Tabane tried shouting in Kai's phone.

"Alright, don't be too long, is that Tabane with you?" Charlotte asked confused.

"Yeah, she followed me here, I'll be back soon" He clicked end call button.

"Can you not shout at me when I'm on the phone please?" He told off Tabane, causing her to give him the sad child eyes again. Kai sighed as he hugged Tabane to stop her giving him the look.

The sun was setting when Kai stepped back on the tram to head back to the Academy, he almost felt like not returning that night, he didn't want to face the backlash of his actions. Charlotte was waiting for him in the station by IS Academy, he dropped a text her ahead of time telling her he was on his way back.

"Hey" Kai said flatly walking past her.

"What happened? Houki tried telling me but I couldn't get much out of her when she was crying" She asked catching up to him.

"I don't think I love her anymore Charlotte" he replied, quite sad that she was crying.

"Then tell her, you can't leave things as they are" She said quite sternly in her French accent.

"I'll tell her after the fight tomorrow, I assume you got her text?" he asked.

"Yeah I got it, it's quite a bold move asking to fight two of us at the same time" she smirked.

"I want to reach number one as soon as possible, I can't let anything get in the way of that" Kai told her, only Tabane knew his true motive behind wanting to be number 1.

"So, tomorrow yeah?" Charlotte asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon, we'll do it then, should we get it announced?" Kai asked.

"I'm sure everyone will pick up on it eventually" she replied.

The two of them walked back into the school, Charlotte walked back to her room, but Kai headed to the roof, he reached the top and found what he was looking for straight away, walking to far end he found the scrunched up, rusty metal tag he threw away before. Putting it back in his pocket he went to his room.

"So you're fighting them tomorrow?" Laura asked as as he opened the door.

"Let me guess, news travels fast?" He mocked her. She glared at him with eyes that could kill, she was wearing her patch less and less as the days went on.

"You know I could kill you with pretty much everything in this room, right?" She challenged him.

"I very much doubt that" He chuckled kicking off his shoes.

As he lifted his head up, a pencil flew past his face, grazing his nose and stuck into the wall beside him. He slowly turned his head to Laura who now had a knife in her hand ready to throw.

"You were saying?" She smirked.

"You're crazy, you know that?" He said taking off his jacket.

"We're all crazy in our own little ways" She said getting up to retrieve her pencil.

As she got close, Kai disarmed her in the same way he would an IS, and took the knife off of her.

"Not so dangerous now" he said proud of himself.

Laura smirked as she spun around and kicked the knife out of his hand into the ceiling and flipped him over her shoulder onto his back, she jumped up grabbing the knife, then landed on Kai before he could get up, placing the knife across his throat.

"I'm _always_ dangerous" she said seriously.

Kai was scared and amazed, when she said she felt like killing him, she really could with ease.

"Right well, I think you've proven your point, can you get off of me?" He asked as she pinned his arms down.

"What's the magic word?" she teased.

What they failed to notice was Cecilia had walked into their room to investigate the noise.

"Guys, what are you doing in he-" she choked as she came round the corner to see Laura on top of Kai.

"LAURA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! KAI? I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE INTO THIS KIND OF STUFF, BUT LAURA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she screamed.

"Cecilia please, it isn't what it looks like" Kai panicked.

"And what if it is?" Laura glared at her.

"I didn't see anything, I'm going now" Cecilia ran back out, slightly scared of Laura.

The sun slowly set, Laura and Kai spent the evening arguing over who was better at fighting, but he gave in when she got him in a choke hold.

"I think you've broken my arm y'know" Kai said laying down to go to bed.

"You'll be fine, if I wanted to break your arm, I would've done it in so many places that it wouldn't heal" She joked, laying down in her own bed.

"You're one of a kind, you know that?" Kai smiled to the ceiling.

"What do you mean?" Laura asked.

"Well, there's so much mystery about you, I don't know much about you, but it feels like we've been best friends for years" he threw a thumbs up her way.

Laura blushed, the others girls were her friends, but she'd never had a boy friend before. They never liked her eye patch, even the guys in the unit she was in resented her abilities. She wanted to tell him how she felt, how she just wanted to fall into his arms at the end of the day, but he was with Houki, so she kept it bottled up.

Kai was up early the next day, he was pumped for his fight, he'd never fought 2 Pilots with their own personal IS's before. He could feel the adrenaline pumping, he asked Laura if she'd be there to watch him fight, but she ignored him as she was too tired to answer. He walked down to the arena to get some practice in, deploying his IS, he activated burst mode and deployed his Revolver.

Virtual targets popped up around the arena as he turned and fired as fast as he could, when the time limit expired his score appeared '40/100'.

"God fucking dammit!" he shouted in the sky, this was his seventh try and his score was getting worse.

"You can't expect to hit anything with that sort of aim" Cecilia laughed behind him. She had her IS and weapons deployed.

"I planned on getting some target practice this morning, but it seems you beat me to it, you're taking this fight seriously then huh?" She walked next to him, her IS and wingspan were fairly larger than his.

"Yeah, I read about Charlotte's IS, it's all artillery, so I need to be prepared with my long range weapon" he replied spinning the Cylinder to his revolver.

"Well, how about a little tutoring?" Cecilia beamed at this opportunity to get close to him.

"I guess a little help wouldn't hurt" he smiled.

Cecilia positioned herself behind him, helping him hold the gun steady. As the targets popped up she corrected his bad aim.

"Score – 80/100" a robotic voice said.

"It seems when you aim, you let the weight of the barrel control how you hold the gun, causing you to shoot a little lower than intended" she explained.

Kai was clinging on to every word she said, anything to help him gain the upper hand was valuable information.

"Would you mind if I had a go with your revolver?" Cecilia asked.

"Uh yeah, sure.. here" He said passing it over to her.

Blue Tears, her IS, fell straight to the floor, the Revolver was too heavy for her to even pick up.

"KAI! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? WHY IS IT SO DAMN HEAVY" She screamed.

"It's not, it's really light" Kai said picking it up with ease.

The sun was fully illuminating the arena, it was bound to a lovely day. But the mood was dropped when Kai's belly rumbled out loud.

"Ugh, I skipped out on breakfast again" he said rubbing his gut.

"Would you like to get some with me?" Cecilia asked, blushing slightly.

"Uh sure, let's go" he smiled.

This was it, Cecilia's time to shine, she was finally alone with him, it was time to show Kai what she was made of.

They quickly collected their breakfast and found a small table to sit on together.

They conversed while eating, Kai had never really took the time to sit and talk to Cecilia, learning about her heritage and England was quite insightful, he didn't even notice when she placed her hand on his.

"Maybe you'd like to come with me one Christmas? I usually head back to England around that time" She smiled.

"Yeah, that'd be great, I'd love to get out and see the world y'know" He replied.

"Attention students, there is an Elite Fight scheduled to happen in exactly 30 minutes, please take the time to finish what you're doing and head to the arena as soon as possible please, thank you" a French accent said over the speakers, Kai guessed Charlotte really wanted to do this.

"Well, looks like I should head out, let's do this again sometimes, yeah?" he smiled directly at Cecilia, leaving her blushing a strong red.

Kai met Laura half way, she seemed to be walking to the arena too.

"I didn't think you'd come" He smiled.

"Well after you was noisy as hell this morning, I had to get up" She replied annoyed.

"Well, it's nice to see you make the effort" he patted her head.

"So, if you win you have to fight number 1 huh?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, to be honest I'm more nervous about that than this, apparently only the Elite know who it is, I can't wait to find out who it is, I'll beat them down and become number 1!" He explained puffing out his chest like a hero.

"I.. I wouldn't get too cocky, I heard they're pretty good" she said punching his arm.

They arrived at the doors that separated them and the arena, Kai was about to walk in when Laura grabbed his sleeve.

"Hey, what's-" he said turning to her.

"Good luck" She said quickly before putting her lips to his, kissing him passionately, letting all of her emotions out in that one kiss, only being stopped by the announcement that Kai was wanted on the arena.

They didn't say anything, but smiled as Kai walked out, the sun was high in the sky and beating down some intense heat. The crowd were louder than ever, a double Elite fight would go down in IS Academy history, Kai could've sworn he saw Chifuyu sat with the other teachers as he walked in. Houki and Charlotte we're waiting in the centre of the arena for him, he jogged over.

"It's quite a turnout" He smiled, stretching a little.

"Are you ready to do this?" Charlotte asked.

"We're not going to go easy on you!" Houki followed.

"Don't worry guys, I'm going all out on this one" Kai smiled.

The 3 spilt up, Kai going one way, Houki and Charlotte going the other. Kai had only read about Charlotte's IS, he'd not actually seen it, so he was looking forward to seeing how a long to medium range IS would work in unison with a short range IS.

Kai deployed his IS and turned to face the others, Houki deployed the Akatsubaki, the wings folding out to maximum length, the crowd screaming over seeing her IS. Charlotte was next.

"Rafale-Revive Deploy!" Charlotte shouted, an orange light glowed from the pendant around her neck, and covered her like an orange veil.

After the light subsided, Kai saw her IS, it was orange and black like her jacket, her wing thrusters spread out 2 on each side, almost like a dragonfly.

A countdown in the form of loud beeps started, 10.. 9.. 8. Kai was wondering how he should go about attacking, Houki had the close range advantage and the speed, and Charlotte had the Range advantage, 6.. 5.. 4. Maybe if he could somehow temporarily disable one, he could focus on the other 2..1.

Kai was so focused on how to plan his attack, that he didn't realise the match hard started. Charlotte sped in close and strafed him at a safe distance, firing her 2 deployed sub machine guns spraying him with him with bullets. He was so focused on defending Charlotte's attacks that he didn't hear Houki sneak attack, he turned as the two Katanas struck his chest, sending him a decent distance across the arena, he still remained on his feet.

Recovering he deployed his swords to defend from Houki who was once again charging at him, Charlotte stopped firing in case she hit her parter. The sparks once again flew as Kai defended Houki's quick and vicious attacks, he could barely hear the crowd over the sound of metal being bashed together. He could see the fatigue in her movements, she was slowing down slightly with every hit, he recognized a window of opportunity and shoulder barged Houki, this took her by surprise as she lost her balance and dropped her swords.

"Houki, use your thrusters and get the hell out of there!" Charlotte shouted flying in for an attack.

Houki tried flying away but Kai managed to grab the back of her IS, he pulled her back and flung her in the nearest wall, flying right after her, he switched his swords around to a stabbing-like hold, he used the speed from his thrusters to slam his swords into Houki's wings, pinning her to the wall keeping her out of the fight, but leaving himself defenceless.

"Stay here for a sec" he smiled as he used his legs to pull off of the wall and speed away, leaving Houki shouting at him to free her.

"Right, that's one, how am I going to deal with Charlotte" He thought avoiding bullets in the air as she chased him firing her SMG's.

He needed time to activate burst mode, but Charlotte was slowly catching up to him, he needed a better plan, looking down at Houki something clicked.

"Well, what if I swap them around? Houki would be easier to beat first" He thought.

He'd have to do it unarmed, he'd have to make his IS the weapon, he put his thrusters into overdrive, powering straight up into the sky, Charlotte followed, wondering what his plan was, but didn't let up on the suppression. Kai shut off his IS's thrusters, using his momentum to carry him as he turned, he began charging his thrusters, Charlotte began catching up as he slowly lost speed, she pulled out a small IS combat knife, which is substantially larger than a normal combat knife, to attack him head on with, but just before she made contact, Kai used the stored charge in his thruster to eject a massive burst at speed at once.

He clenched his fist as he collided with Charlotte punching her IS's chest, colliding with the metal with such a force made his fist's armour start to crack all down the arm. She unconsciously fell to the arena as her IS went into safety mode.

He quickly descended to remove the swords from Houki's wings. After retrieving them Houki ran over to Charlotte, checking if she was ok.

"This is fight Houki, are you going to fight or not?" Kai asked gripping his swords.

"Was this really necessary?!" She said her voice full of hate.

"I don't know how you got to rank 3 with that kind of attitude Houki, she knew what was at stake, she's only unconscious" Kai said getting agitated.

"But you didn't have to attack her like that!" She shouted.

Houki collected her Katanas, but recalled one.

"If we're going to fight, I'd prefer if it was with just one sword" she requested.

Kai respected her decision and recalled one of his, but didn't waste any time thinking about attacking, he charged at her sword over head but she defended, the crowd were going wild over the sword fight. Sparks were flying everywhere.

"Is that all you've got? Can't even hit a girl?" Houki mocked him inbetween hits.

"I'm just taking it easy on you" Kai smirked.

Kai brought his sword up from the ground upwards slash to her chest, but as she defended with her Katana, his sword got lodged into hers where hers were worn down by the constant hits, that and the fact that Kai's swords were much thicker and stronger than hers. They both dropped their swords and took a quick breather.

Suddenly Houki deployed her other Katana for an over head swing, but following her advice to use his IS as a weapon, he sped forward deflecting the hit with his left hand and launched his right, cracked hand into her chest, launching her quite a distance, but also his whole right arm's armour cracked and broke, like a reversed partial deployment.

"Does this count as a loss? There's no 'Loser' on my HUD" he thought to himself.

He looked over and saw Houki emerge from the crater, without her IS.

"1 down, 1 to go" Kai thought to himself.

Then he felt it, a sharp pain in his left arm, again and again, turning he saw Charlotte had regained conciousness and was firing at him with a high calibre rifle strafing closer and closer to him. He strafed to try and avoid her shots, but her aim was better than Cecilia's. He dived into the crater made earlier by Charlotte's impact to take cover, he activated burst mode. Jumping out of cover he started returning fire with his revolver, he was sure some shots hit but it seemed to have no effect, she was in full concentration mode.

The shots were really doing a number on his IS, she hit his leg, causing him to fall to one knee, he no longer had enough energy to keep his weapons deployed.

"You put up a good fight Kai, but you can't beat two of us, better luck next time" Charlotte said walking up to him, about to end the fight with her combat knife.

Bringing the knife down, Kai jumped back to buy himself more precious seconds.

"I'm not going down yet, I've got plenty of fight in me" He smiled, but his IS was a state, his right arm's armour had cracked and broken away, his armour was scratched and riddled with bullet holes.

"Kai just let me end this and you can try again" Charlotte tried to reason with him.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that, I'm here to win, to prove myself, and that's exactly what I'm going to do" He smiled, deploying his Lance, he used it as a support to stand back up.

"Whatever, it's time for this to end" Charlotte said walking over and slammed her knife into his IS's shoulder to deplete his shields and deactivate his IS, but nothing happened.

"Now, it's time to show you what I can do" he managed between heavy breaths.

His Lance started shining, little lines of blue light made lots of strange patterns down the white weapon. Kai stood back up straight and took a deep breath, Charlotte stepping back slowly, cautious to what he was doing.

"Limit's are set by the user, that's what Tabane said, it got me thinking, what if doesn't just mean Houki's IS, but to everyone's IS? So, I'm going to put my heart and soul into this last attack and unlock unknown potential in my IS" Kai explained.

"Activate, Omega Overdrive Fury Lance!" He exclaimed pointing it straight at Charlotte, her eyes widened in horror.

She tried flying away, but before she could take off, a giant beam of light which shot out of the Lance forced her into the arena wall, but it didn't stop there, the beam quickly drained her shield. Seeing her IS had been recalled, he stopped the beam, she fell from the wall , leaving a body pattern amongst a 10 metre wide burnt-black circle.

The crowd was once again in shock, Kai had pulled a win back from what looked like a loss. He started swaying back and forward, his vision going a bit blurry.

"That was sweet" He said, before falling back collapsing.

The medical team ran onto the arena and picked up Houki and Charlotte, but Lin, Cecilia and Laura ran onto the arena to check on Kai.

"H..Hey guys, wassup? Did I win?" He managed before falling asleep, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Kai woke up back in his bed, his head killed. Looking over the clock said 2pm, the fight happened at 11am if his memory served correct. He slid out of bed, but he was completely naked, he panicked and looked for his clothes.

"Chill out, the medical team needed to see if there was any major damage" Laura said on sat on her bed.

"Oh, alright" Kai said relived, slipping on some shorts.

"What happened? Why does my head hurt?" Kai asked yawning.

"You beat them, but the fight and that last move you used really took a toll on your body, you should take it easy" Laura explained.

Kai started remembering, using the lance's special attack to beat Charlotte, he turned to Laura to ask a question but she already answered it before he could ask.

"They're fine, in fact they're in their rooms right now" she said.

"You're weird you know that?" Kai said putting on a t-shirt.

He quickly jotted something down on a small bit of paper and left the room without saying a word, he slipped it under Houki & Lin's door and walked off.

Lin who was just getting out of the shower saw it.

"Hey Houki, someone put a note under the door" She said fairly loud so she could hear her.

"What does it say?" She asked putting down her book.

"Houki, I have something important to tell you, please come to the usual spot as soon as possible, Kai" she finished.

"Right, I'll go see what he wants, it's probably to gloat or something" She smiled.

She slipped on her shoes and made way to the roof, opening the fire door she saw Kai stood on the edge of the roof, looking down.

"So, what do you have to tell me that can't wait?" She asked walking over to him.

Turning around he had the saddest look in his eye, she started to get worried as she tried to take his hand, he just pulled away.

"I... I've been thinking, maybe you and me should.. not see each other anymore, I just don't really feel the same anymore" He said looking at her feet.

"W..w..what, why? Is it something I did? Something I said? Tell me and I can fix it, please" She said putting her hands on his shoulders, tears dripping off her cheek.

"I mean, you were my first love, you've taught me so much, and I wouldn't change any of the memories we've made together for the world, but I just can't do it anymore" he explained.

Houki didn't reply, her hands just slipped off his shoulders and she covered her eyes, the tears forming a small puddle forming below her.

"I'm sorry Houki, it's over" He said, walking away.


	11. The Downfall Of Us All

**Hi guys, so here it is, the final chapter! I hope you all like it as I put a load of time into it, making it long and interesting.  
Again, it get's a little NSFW, I'll mark it out so if you don't want to read it, you can skip it and the story will progress smoothly.  
See you all in the next story. -Josh**

**Infinite Stratos Elite Finale.**

A week had passed since Kai's fight with Houki and Charlotte & summer break was coming to a close. He needed time to recover as he exhausted his body, but was more than eager to get back into his IS and fighting again, unfortunately it

needed maintenance, leaving him grounded for the time being.

"How much longer is it going to take?" Kai impatiently asked the engineer.

"Kai, you can't keep asking that question every 5 minutes, we'll let you know when it's done, now please leave your necklace on that table and leave" He replied.

Kai mumbled to himself as he exited the room, complaining that it wasn't a necklace, he felt near enough naked without his IS close at hand. He walked through the school's hallways, students that stayed at the Academy over summer break had heard of his and Houki's break up, and didn't avert their eyes as he leisurely paced along. Turning the corner to head to the stairs, Kai bumped into Chifuyu, who didn't have a happy look on her face, no changes there.

"Ah, just the person I was looking for, follow me please" she said in her usual emotionless voice.

Kai followed her curious what he'd done, he had spent most of his time in his room over the past week. They arrived at Chifuyu's office, she opened the door and held it open, but as he walked in she slammed it shut, making Kai jump.

"Now, please explain to me what the hell you think you're doing?" She asked walking to her desk.

"What do you mean? I've not done anything" He replied confused.

"Don't give me that bullshit, you don't really think you can just walk up to their gates and you'll be let in no fuss?"

It took a second for something in Kai's mind to click, why did he even tell Tabane? She's like a kid, she could never keep a secret.

"She told you I take it" He smirked, sitting down on the sofa.

"She told me everything Kai, you don't think I'd let this pass unnoticed and without consequence?" she asked.

"Well what are you going to do? Physically restrain me? Take my IS away? Nothing is going to stop me from going Miss Orimura, let me say that now"

"I'm not going to do anything like that, but if you do decide to go and put your own life in danger, and possibly causing more problems for me, my students and my Academy, I have no option but to expel you, so don't think we'll have you back"

Kai sighed and stood up, passing a glance at Chifuyu who was glaring back, he smirked and went to leave the room, but before he closed her door he poked his head back around;

"I don't plan on coming back" he said closed the door.

Walking down the hallway, Kai was thinking about how she shouldn't have a say in what he does, what does she know? It was up to him how he conducted his life, not some random woman. His trail of thought was broken when a French accent called his name.

"Kai, do you have a second?" Charlotte asked running up to him.

"I suppose" He replied bluntly.

"Good, then come with me" She grabbed his hand and led him back to her room.

"Look Charlotte, I know I've broken up with Houki and all, but you could at least wait a while before you try anything" He said as they reached her door.

"Get over yourself, and get in" she said pushing him into her room, to his surprise the rest of the Elite was there, including the not-so-happy looking Houki.

"Is this some kind of intervention?" Kai asked looking around.

"No not at all, please sit down" Cecilia said, patting the seat of the chair next to her, he opted for the vacant bed.

"As you know, you've reached the rank of number 2 amongst the Elite, it's quite spectacular actually, no one has beaten any of us in years, you're something special" Lin explained.

"And it's about time you met number 1" Charlotte said sitting down next to him "We keep her identity a secret by her request, and it is only to revealed when someone reaches the rank of number 2, are you ready?" She finished.

Kai was extremely overwhelmed and excited, he could meet her but not fight her yet? This was torture.

"Uhh, should I shower first? Or do my hair or something?" He asked running a hand through his hair, it was getting quite long.

"No no, you just need to follow us to secret location, and you can meet her" Cecilia smiled.

"Well, can I just get something from my room? I'll meet you outside my room in a minute" he said leaving before they could reply.

Entering his room, he took a moment to catch his breath, his heart was pounding, this was it, he could become number 1 and fulfil his goal. He walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, wetting his hand he ran it through his hair, attempting to make himself look more presentable. Taking a deep breath he opened his door, only to attacked by the girls, they held him down and blindfolded him, leaving him in the dark and restrained.

They walked for a some time before they reached their destination. They sat him down on an old, squeaky chair and pulled his blindfold off, he closed his eyes at the light re-entering his eyes, taking a second to adjust. He blinked a few times at the floor before bringing his head up to look at who was number 1.

He couldn't believe his eyes, she stood with her back to him, but he could recognize that stance anywhere, he swallowed the lump in his throat before trying to talk.

"Miss Orimura? I..is that you?" he said rubbing his eyes.

She turned to him, confirming his suspicion, she had a slight smirk on her face, which was a rare sight.

"Sorry for the who blindfolding business, I thought it'd add a little more drama to the situation" she said as her hair flowed freely in the wind.

Looking around, he could see they were on a small cliff, just outside the boundary's of the Academy, the rest of the girls were stood behind him with IS Academy in the close distance.

"So.. I've got to fight you? You're number 1?" He asked standing up to stretch.

"Me? Who said that? Oh god no that'd be Havok! My days of piloting an IS are over" She said with a sad look in her eye, obviously thinking back to her Mondo Grosso days.

"Havok? Who or what is that?" Lin asked with a quizzed look.

"Yeah Miss Orimura, that's really not like you to say things like that" Cecilia followed.

"Actually, I don't know, it just came to mind, but why can't I be a little spontaneous for once? Anyway, for the number 1 title, you'll be fighting her" She said stepping out of the way, revealing the silver haired IS pilot looking out to the distance.

"L..Laura?" He said taking a step closer.

He was stunned at how she looked, she was wearing a black dress with big puffs on the shoulders, white stripes circled her arms, she looked amazing, leaving Kai speechless. Endless thoughts were running through his mind, how could a shut in like herself become number 1? Was she really _that_ strong?

"I'm sure you've got many questions, but I've only got one for you, will you take my hand?" She asked extending a hand to him.

Kai looked behind for some sort of approval for the others, but they had already started walking off, including Chifuyu, it was just Laura and himself, alone. He slowly approached her, extending his hand, she took his with a strong grip. Before he could react, she pulled him forward as she fell back off the cliff.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I DON'T HAVE MY IS" He shouted, but the smile didn't disappear from her face.

Before they hit the floor, she deployed her own personal IS and squeezed him close to her chest, leaving him barely any breathing room. Kai noticed something about her IS, he'd definitely seen it before. They flew to the same mountain Kai did after his incident with Scarlett, the sun was bright in the sky as she landed and put him down, recalling her IS.

"Sorry for the whole blindfolding you and such, no one has ever made it to rank 2, so I wanted to do something cool to celebrate, I hope you liked it" she smiled.

"Uh.. yeah.. it was great" Kai said getting over the shock of everything that had just happened.

"So, go ahead"

"Go ahead with what?"

"I'm sure you've got a lot of questions, ask away, I'll answer all of them" She said sitting next to him by the little pool of water.

"Ok.. How did you get to be Number 1 if you don't even come out of your room?" He asked.

"Well, it wasn't always like that you know, when I started at IS Academy I had a lot of friends, even with my eye patch. When the others saw my skill in my IS, they asked me if I wanted to try out for the Elite, and as the weeks passed, I beat them one by one, but then Celia joined our class, she's never piloted an IS before, her dad is super rich so he paid off the school board to let her in, and that's when the relentless bullying started, eventually joined in, including my friends, so I thought the best thing to do was to just lock myself away" She explained, leaving Kai interested.

"That explains the vacant desk in class" He thought to himself.

"Ok then, do you remember when the robot attacked the school?" he asked.

"Of course" She replied.

"Well, after I beat it, I collapsed from using too much energy, someone saved me that day, and that person's IS looks very similar.."

"To mine? Because it was me, I used Schwazer Regen to save you that day, I couldn't sit back and let you fight it alone"

"I knew I recognized it, it's nice to be in it's arms instead of having the cannon shoved in my face" He joked.

"But really, thank you for saving me, I owe you one" he said more seriously taking her hand causing Laura to blush.

"W.. what are you doing?" She said trying to cover her red cheeks.

"If you need anything, I mean anything, just tell me, ok, promise to help you with anything" He smiled.

"Ok, deal" She said hugging him.

"So, I guess we should sort out a date to fight on?" She said pulling away.

"Well, my IS is repair at the moment, I'm sure you saw the fight, it should be done soon though"

"Well, let's say the day after it's repaired? I'm sure it'll be battle ready by then"

"Ok, it's a date" he smiled, but Laura just blushed harder.

"So, is there anything else left of this reveal performance? Or was this the end?" He joked.

"Well, I didn't have anything else planned, I mean it's kind of a waste, I put this damn dress on and everything" She started talking to herself.

"Well.. I think you look really good in it, is it what you got when you became an Elite? To wear instead of your uniform?" He asked laying down to look at the cloudless blue sky.

"Uh yeah, I stopped wearing it because I never left my room, I didn't see the point"

"Well, did you want to do something tonight? Non-IS related" he turned to her.

"Are you asking me out on a d..date?" She covered her mouth in shock and surprise.

"If you want to call it that, I just want to hang out, maybe grab some coffee? A meal maybe?"

"So a date then" Laura said under her breath, amazed at what was happening.

Kai's belly started rumbling, he quickly turned red with embarrassment.

"I uh, was kidnapped before I could have any lunch" He said, trying to cover up his embarrassment.

"Well, I won't deny you any food, did you want to head back?" She asked deploying her IS.

It was quite a sight, he'd never seen a clear view of her IS before. It stood quite tall with a very striking black paint job with small parts of colour detail, although it looked kind of thin. The massive cannon rested mounted on her right shoulder.

"I uh.. it's kind of embarrassing a woman carrying a man" he said with a hand on the back of his head.

"Suit yourself, stay here then" She said just about to take off.

"WAIT WAIT WAIT!" He ran at her, he skilfully jumped up on her IS's back.

"It's not weird if you're giving me a piggy back!" He smiled, thinking he was a genius.

"Well hold on" She smiled.

They slowly lifted into the air, and without warning jolted forwards, her IS was considerably faster than Kai's, if it wasn't for his strength he would have slipped off when she took off.

It didn't take long for IS Academy to come back into view, he could feel Laura slowing down as she landed in the front of the school, kicking up the dust causing quite a commotion for the other students outside.

"So, when did you want to go out?" she asked ignoring everyone shouting at her for the mess she made.

"Does 6 sound good? I need to have a shower and sort some things out" he replied.

"Yeah that sounds good, I'll see you then!" She said running back into the school.

Kai walked back to his room, Laura was nowhere to be seen. He looked through his wardrobe and frowned, he had barely any clothes, 2 school uniforms, jeans and a t-shirt, including his black and red jacket which he was already wearing. He did keep some money back from when he brought his jacket from the second hand shop, but he had no time to go and buy clothes.

"I guess I'm going to have to go casual" he thought to himself.

He quickly undressed and got in the shower, locking the door in case Laura 'accidentally' walked in on him again.

"Would someone consider this a date? I mean I like her, but we're just friends right?" he though to himself as the warm water ran down his face.

Meanwhile, Laura was in the other room with Cecilia and Charlotte talking about their plans.

"So, you're going on a date?" Charlotte asked.

"Not a date, he said it's just coffee and a meal, so that's what it is" Laura replied crossing her arms.

"Well it sounds like a date to me" Cecilia nudged Laura so hard that she fell off the bed.

"Does Houki know?" Charlotte helped her up.

"No.. but I don't think it has anything to do with her, they've broken up, besides, it's just a meal!" Laura said trying to justify herself.

"Well either way, we're going to help you look amazing, oh my it's going to be so much fun!" Cecilia squealed pulling out a large make-up bag from beside her bed.

Both Cecilia and Charlotte advanced towards Laura like two hungry wolves advancing on their prey, but instead of fangs, they had brushes and tweezers. Passers by could hear Laura's grunts and screams of resistance from outside, leaving them wondering if she needed help.

Kai clicked off the shower and tied a large towel around his waist and using a smaller one he dried his hair. Walking back into his room he almost slipped over in shock, Houki was in his room.

"Houki?! What the hell? What do you want?" He demanded.

"W.. Well it's that, I heard you was going on a date with Laura, and I just wanted to ask if it was true?" She asked quietly.

"We're going for a meal, that's all, what made you think it was ok to just come in here?!"

"Well, the door was unlocked.."

"So? Don't just walk in without asking, or knocking for that matter!"

"O..Ok, I'll see myself out" she quickly walked past him with her head down, but he could easily see the tears on her cheeks.

"What's her problem?" He thought to himself getting dried, he looked over at the clock, it was already 4:30.

"Fuck, how was I long in the shower?" He said to himself jumping into gear to get dressed.

He slipped on his jeans, t-shirt & jacket, he also have his shoes a quick clean as they looked like they had seen better days. With an hour left he walked down to the arena of the school to check on his IS.

"Hey guy's how's it goi-" He was shocked at what he saw when he walked into IS Repairs, his IS was stripped down bare, leaving him speechless.

"WHAT THE FUCK GUYS? MY.. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" he shouted running over to his 'baby'.

"Please calm down Mr Hollow, your IS is fully repaired" The engineer walked over to him with a clip board in hand.

"FULLY REPAIRED? DOES IT LOOK REPAIRED TO YOU?!" He grabbed the engineer by the scruff of his top.

"It may not look like it now, but we encountered something amazing when we were trying to wield the arm back together, it seemed to react negatively to the wielding machine, and it well.. fixed itself!"

"It fixed itself?" Kai calmed down, letting the poor man go.

"Yes, so we've taken some of the armour off to see if it can regenerate itself, we're having some positive reactions too, the process is slow, but it is fixing itself, this will surely revolutionise the IS industry!"

Those last words stung Kai, his whole life in the lab that's all he heard, about how he'll "Revolutionise" everything, his face descended into a hateful look as he gritted his teeth, trying not to get angry.

"Just make sure it's battle ready by tomorrow" He said quietly.

"Don't worry, if it hasn't fully repaired itself by the morning, we'll re-install the armour" the engineer finished, walking off.

"So, this is what you meant when you said 'Sorting things out' " a voice said behind him.

Turning around to the door, Kai was dumbstruck at what he saw, Laura had really gone all out, her hair was straightened and looked soft to the touch, her lips were complimented with a light red lipstick, the dress she wore was similar to the one she wore earlier, but the colours were inverted and had small straps instead of full, over-the-shoulder look, The white really looked amazing with her pale skin, she was even wearing white high heels that finished off the look perfectly. Kai felt extremely under-dressed.

"Laura, you look..." he started.

"Over dressed? Do I look stupid? I'll go and change" She said red faced, she tried walking away before Kai grabbed her arm.

"No, please, you look amazing" her heart skipped a beat after receiving the compliment.

"Well uh, should we get going?" she asked blushing.

"Yeah, hopefully we can get a good table" he replied looking at the clock on the wall.

Without thinking he took her hand, leading her along the hallways, Laura could hear the other students whispering about how amazing she looked, it had been a while since the school looked at her like a normal person. They quickly arrived at the tram station, but were met with a large sign outside the door.

"The Tram service is under maintenance for the next 3 days, sorry for any inconvenience"

"Well.. fuck, how are we going to get to the mainland?" he turned to Laura, who had already deployed her IS.

"It won't take long to fly, hop on" She said taking a knee to let Kai on her back.

He sighed as once again he was to be chauffeured by Laura, he felt like his manliness was being ripped from him, but it was his only option. He climbed on and she sped over over the ocean, she was right, it was considerable quicker than the noisy old tram. When she landed and he climbed off, Kai couldn't help but laugh at Laura's messed up hair, she proceeded to put him into the arm-bar submission hold until he said sorry.

She quickly sorted her hair out, but to Kai she still looked amazing. The sun was setting and the stars were coming out, the lights throughout the town were turning on, leaving a mesmerizing glow over the streets. Once again they locked hands as they paced slowly down the street, looking for a restaurant that suited their fancy. It didn't take long before they found a small sushi restaurant that mainly took Kai's attention due to the 'All you can eat' sign out front. They were both escorted in and placed in seats by the window, the waiter handed them 2 menus and left to serve other customers.

"This place is amazing" Laura said looking around in amazement, she'd never been to a restaurant as fancy as this.

"Yeah, it seems pretty nice, did you want a drink?" Kai asked browsing the menu.

Both of them were under age, so they had to settle with carbonated drinks for the night, but that didn't stop Kai in his path of devouring all the sushi he could. Laura started with a salad, but he dove straight into a main course of rice balls and long strips of fish. The night went on, Kai and Laura conversed like they were old friends, talking about their favourite moments in life, avoiding Future Genetics completely, Kai felt more than happy being with her, for the first time, he felt human.

"Oh man, that was amazing" Kai said sitting back in his chair, in front of him were masses of empty plates and glasses.

"You look like you're going to pop, are you sure it's healthy to eat that much in one go?" Laura laughed.

"Well, piloting an IS is hunger inducting work, I'm just making up for lost time" he laughed.

"Is sir and madam finished with their meal?" The waiter asked.

"Yes, thank you it was awesome" Kai replied.

"Thank you sir, I'll bring your bill over right away"

Kai pulled out the wad of money from his pocket, leaving Laura astonished at where he got so much money.

"Kai.. Where did you get that?" she asked nervously.

"Oh, when I bought my jacket, I stopped a robber, and the owner of the shop gave me a bunch of money, I don't see why everyone reacts that way because I've got money" He frowned.

The waiter walked over with a small piece of paper, placing it on the table Kai started counting out his money, leaving quite a generous tip they stood up to leave.

"Did you want to wait outside? I just need to use the bathroom real quick" Kai said adjusting his Jacket.

Laura stepped outside as Kai ran to the back of the restaurant, it had gotten considerably darker and colder. Her focus was completely taken by Kai, about how perfect the night was going, and about what it could lead too. While her mind was occupied, she didn't notice the two men advancing towards her, before she could react, one grabbed her arms and pulled her into a nearby alley, while the other pulled a knife on her.

"Mm, what's a young, beautiful girl doing out on your own at this time of night?" the masked man asked running the knife gently down her face.

She wanted to cry, but she couldn't, she refused, crying was a sign of weakness, she was taught that anyone can cry, but only the brave can look their fears in the eye, and she refused to show that she was scared of these creeps.

"Looks like you're going to need some encouragement" He laughed as he grabbed hold of her chin, licking up her cheek.

Kai stepped out of the restaurant, looking left and right he couldn't see her anywhere. Did she leave him here? Then he heard it, his name was screamed somewhere close, his heart pounding recognizing the German accent, he turned the corner into the alley by the restaurant, and we was enraged by what he saw.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" He asked, fists clenched walking into the dark alley.

"Step back boy, this doesn't concern you, run home before you hurt yourself" the man with the knife turned to him, pointing the blade in his direction.

He could see the fear in Laura's eye, the look screamed "Help me".

"I'm not leaving without her, I suggest you leave before I do something I seriously won't regret" He stepped closer.

"Fine, you asked for it you little shit" The knifed assailant ran at him.

He lunged forward, going for a stab at his body, Kai side stepped and grabbed the man by the wrist, spinning him around he grabbed him by the throat and slammed him to the ground. Still holding onto his wrist, Kai began squeezing, using his inhuman strength, he started feeling the cracking he was hoping for, slowly the masked man's wrist started breaking, bones protruding out of his skin, ignoring the screams to stop, he was too focused on trying to kill the man who harmed the girl he loved.

"Dude, stop it, leave him alone" the other masked man let go of Laura and tried to pry Kai off of his friend, but Kai's attention and anger was only shifted.

Taking the other man by the neck, he slammed him into the wall, causing it to shake quite a bit. Kai's body was full of adrenaline, he felt invincible.

"Give me one reason, _ONE _fucking reason why I shouldn't kill you right here and now" Kai asked, sending a further impulse of fear into the masked man.

Kai felt something touch his shoulder, looking over it was the pale skin which he sought to protect.

"Kai please, you've done enough, let's go home" Laura smiled.

He was knocked out of his rage filled state, seeing her smile calmed his mind. Without saying anything, they took each others hands and walked back down the street. A cold wind blew through the town, Kai could feel Laura shivering as she was only wearing a thin dress. He stopped and pulled Laura too him.

"Here" He said sliding off his jacket and placing it around her shoulders.

His body warmth left in the jacket stopped Laura from shivering and warmed her right through, blushing at his gesture, she gave him a kiss on the cheek as a thank you. It didn't take long for them to reach the waters edge where they arrived, once again Laura flew herself and Kai back to the academy, they had been gone a while as the giant digital clock on the side of the building illuminated with the numbers 11:33pm.

Locking arms, they walked quietly through the school halls until they reached their rooms. Stopping outside Laura grabbed Kai and pushed him against the door and kissed him forcefully, for her it was the perfect end to the evening, but Kai gently pulled her away as he needed to say something.

"Laura, tonight has been perfect, but I think we should take it a little slow, let things calm down between me and Houki, is that ok?" he asked.

"Whatever you need, I know you're not going anywhere, so I'll be here whenever you're ready" she smiled, hugging his torso, he placed a hand on the back of her head and pulled her close.

Asking her to take things slow was a painful ordeal for him, he really liked her but couldn't bare the thought of leaving her when he planned to go to Future Genetics' labs. They stepped inside the moonlit-illuminated room, Kai slipped on some shorts after getting undressed and slipped into bed with a sigh. He had only just started drifting off when something poked his cheek, rubbing his eyes he could see the silver haired beauty knelt down next to him.

"Kai, could I sleep in your bed tonight?" She whispered hugging a pillow.

"S..sure yeah, get in" He said drowsily, sliding over.

She happily climbed in and layed on his chest, strangely enough it was comfortable for both parties.

"Goodnight Kai, thank you for tonight" she whispered before falling asleep.

Early the next day, the Academy was buzzing with all the students returning from summer break, so much that Kai couldn't stay asleep from all the crashing and banging from downstairs and outside. Sitting up he felt the lump which was Laura on his side, he completely forgot that she slept with him, he was so used to them sleeping in the same bed.

"I guess I should check my IS out" he thought to himself getting up to get dressed, being careful not to wake Laura.

The clock next to his bed said it was 9am, so the engineers should be awake and at work. Quietly closing the door behind him, he jumped at Lin being there to greet him.

"Hey, what are you up so early for?" she asked suspiciously.

"I couldn't sleep"

"Well, where are you going then?"

"To check on my IS, what is this an interrogation?" he asked getting annoyed.

"No, sorry, go on, I won't bother you anymore" she gestured to the door at the end of the hall.

He yawned as he clicked open the door to stairs, he could hear the girls shouting about how happy they were now their friends were back. He slowly walked down the IS maintenance room where his IS was being held, trying to avoid talking to anyone as much as possible. Opening the door he was amazed at what he saw, all of the armour the engineers had taken off prior to it's repair was still on the floor, but his IS had all it's armour intact, like a freshly made IS was standing before him. He looked around the room to see if anyone was around, after confirming he was alone, he walked up and hugged his IS.

"Ah Kai, we've been waiting for you" the engineer walked in, making Kai jump back.

"Your IS is really something, you know that? If you would please let us run some more tests, we can possibly help the development of the IS around the world!" he said looking through his charts on the clipboard.

Before Kai even answered, he had put his tags back around his neck and recalled his IS, leaving the engineer upset and annoyed that he couldn't tinker with it. Kai walked to the cafeteria, he was hoping to have breakfast on time, and to his luck, the cafeteria was empty, apart from the odd teacher having their morning coffee.

He grabbed his usual breakfast of toast, cereal and coffee and sat in silence, he was quite content on the way his morning was going, first his IS is repaired, now a breakfast in silence? This was _too _good to be true, and he proved his point when Lin punched the cafeteria doors of their hinges with her partially deployed IS.

"KAI" she screamed pointing at him, he simply sighed and sipped his coffee.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT HOUKI WAS DOING LAST NIGHT? CRYING ON MY DAMN SHOULDER, WHAT DID YOU DO?!" she shouted in his face, holding her weapon to his face.

Kai stood up, and in a flash fully deployed his IS and pinned Lin to the floor.

"I didn't do anything, I moved on, tell her she can do the same if she wants to get on with life" he said calmly.

"Hollow, Huang, what do you think you're doing destroying my cafeteria?" Chifuyu asked, mug of coffee in hand.

Both of them with an embarrassed look, recalled their IS's and quickly walked out to the arena to talk.

"Now, what do you want?" Kai asked yawning.

"I want to know what caused Houki to cry so much last night, that's all"

"Me and Laura went for a meal last night, that's all"

"And you thought she'd be ok with this?" Lin replied getting angry, ready to fully deploy.

"We broke up Lin, just drop it" Kai started walking out of the arena.

Lin had heard enough, she fully deployed and charged towards Kai, weapon in hand. An explosion went off between the two, knocking them both to the ground, looking around they could see a black IS flying in from the arena boundary's.

"If you want to fight, then at least have the courtesy to announce it instead of trying to sucker punch them" Laura said landing in front of Kai.

"Laura? If I can't get to him, I'll just go through you" she readied her weapon.

Laura deployed her melee weapon, a beam-like sabre that protruded

from her IS's wrist.

Kai needed to stop them, if Laura was number one, she'd have no problem wiping the floor with Lin. He deployed his IS and ran between them both.

"Stop it, right now, what are you? Kids? Recall your IS's and go back inside, now" he demanded, both of them surprised at this side of him.

"F..fine, whatever, you'll get yours eventually" Lin said flying away.

"Laura.." He began.

"I'm sorry, I acted out, I'll go back to our room" She started flying away when Kai flew up beside her and stopped her.

"No, I want to say thank you, if you didn't step in, she'd probably killed me" He said kind of scared of what Lin was capable of.

"Oh well uh.. you're welcome" Laura's mood did a complete U-turn.

"By the way, when did you want to fight? I know we said the day after my IS was repaired, but Double Edge is battle ready whenever" Kai said hitting the IS's chest plate.

"Oh, shall we say the evening around 5pm? I think you should spend the day training" she said smugly, but to Kai it was no joke, he knew she'd be one of the hardest battles in his life.

"Don't think I'll go down that easily, I think I'll be a decent challenge" Kai tried bigging himself up.

"We'll see" Laura winked as she flew off, leaving Kai in the arena.

"Well.. she's going to kill me" Kai thought to himself.

Unbeknownst to him, he had a spectator to his little intervention. Chifuyu had entered the stands to see what all the racket was about, and she saw him handle the situation. She smiled as she pulled out a picture of her younger brother.

"You two would have gotten along so well, you're so alike, I miss you so much.. Ichika" a small tear formed in her eye, she may not have acted like it, but she did have an emotional side.

Kai activated the arena's training simulations and trained through the morning, going through rigorous close & long range fighting simulations. He easily beat the close range high score of Lin's 158, hitting an impressive 294, but struggled still with his long range, only scoring 79, not coming close to Cecilia's 379.

Many other students wanted to go out in the arena and practice, but where to afraid that they'd get in Kai's way, but to their relief, he left the arena exhausted.

Kai for once decided to have a bath other than a shower, he slid in and let the hot water relax his muscles.

"Why did I let it get that far with Laura the other night? They all might hate me for it but I'd rather cut all emotional ties from when I'm gone" He thought to himself, sinking lower into the hot water.

"Should I tell them? Would it be easier for everyone if I came clean?" his mind was torn, he wanted to tell them he wouldn't be coming back after reaching number 1, but the other half wanted to stay with his friends and Laura.. "Laura".

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts, he got out of the bath and wrapped a towel around his waist before opening the door.

"Laura? What's up?"

"Well, it's time for lunch and I wondered if you wanted to have it with me?" she asked blushing.

Kai thought before answering, did he really want to dig himself further into this hole? But on the other hand, he wanted to spend as much time with Laura as possible. She took his silence as his answer.

"Ok, well maybe another day?" looking down, she started walking out.

"Wait, I'd love to have some, will you wait for me?" he asked smiling, cheering Laura up.

He threw on some clothes, not forgetting his jacket, and walked with Laura down to the cafeteria.

"I saw you working your butt off out there" Laura joked picking up a tray of food.

"Not going to lie, I'm kind of nervous about the fight, I'm afraid I'm going to get my ass handed to me" He followed behind.

"I won't beat you _that_ bad, I'm sure you'll but up a decent fight" she replied sitting down on a 2 person table.

"Should we get it announced?" Kai asked.

"Have you not heard? Everyone is discussing 'the fight that will go down in history', so I think everyone will be there, maybe hours before the fight to get good seats" she said in amusement.

Kai was still nervous, she had shown no signs that she'd try going easy on him, but what did he expect? You can't have a handicap in such an important fight. They both finished their lunch and prepared to leave, when Laura stopped him for a second.

"By the way Kai, do you have any nice clothes, like a suit?" She asked.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?" he asked looking down at his scruffy attire.

"If you win, there's more than likely going to be a party, so I suggest you go shopping to get something nice before the fight starts, you've got about 3 hours, better hurry" She finished, walking out of the cafeteria.

It was true that he had quite a bit of money left over, but he really didn't like the idea of dressing up, Kai liked wearing comfortable clothes, not uncomfortable suits. And the thing is, he didn't know the first thing about shopping, where to find decent clothes, where to get a bargain, or where the best shops are, who could he ask to help him? He smirked when he thought of someone.

"Cecilia" he laughed a little to himself, he ran down the hallways, narrowly avoiding students, to get to her room. Out of breath he knocked on his neighbours door.

"Oh good afternoon Kai, can I help you?" Charlotte answered the door.

"C..Cecilia, is Cecilia here?" He said panting, upon hearing her name she ran to the door.

"Yes Kai my darling, you're here to see me?" She smiled.

"Yeah, I need your help" he smiled.

"You need _MY_ help?! I'll be glad to assist, after all it is the duty of any Alcott to help those in need" She said proudly, like she was addressing the world.

"Right... Well I need you to come shopping with me, I need to buy something nice, like a suit or something" he said, he didn't really like the idea of putting 'buy' and 'suit' together in the same sentence.

"Oh my, and of course you've come to me, the right choice indeed, shall we get going now?" she didn't leave him room to reply, but instead took his hand and literally dragged him down the hallway.

Unfortunately the tram was still out, leaving them having to use their IS's to get across the water, Cecilia tried to argue that in exchange for her services, Kai should carry her like a princess across the water, but after a small argument they came to the agreement that if she beats him in a race to the other side, he'd carry her back. She tried her best, but to no avail, Blue Tears was simply no match for Double Edge.

"So, how much do I have to work with here?" Cecilia asked as they arrived in town.

"Here, this is what I've got left" Kai handed her a thick stack of cash, leaving her speechless.

"K..Kai, you do realise you could buy multiple suits with this much?" She asked.

"Really? It's just paper to me" he said shrugging.

"W..Well let's get to it, we're burning daylight here!" She said once again dragging him along.

They went to only the finest shops amongst the shops in town, they finally settled on a suit when they visited one of Cecilia's favourite tailors, they made him a custom suit that consisted of a black shirt, grey waist coat, a red tie, long black trousers and finished with a pair of the finest shoes money can buy.

"Oh my, Kai you look delectable, you're going to look amazing at the party, if you win that is" she said winking at the last comment.

"Very funny, is there anything you want?" he asked paying for his suit.

"Me? You're going to buy me a gift?" she asked surprised.

"Yeah, is there anything here that takes you like?"

"Well, there's a scarf I've had my eye on for a while now.." she replied looking over at the window, on display was the most beautiful blue scarf anyone could set eyes on, and without hesitation Kai asked the cashier;

"And could I have the scarf in the window please" pulling out some more money.

Cecilia was gobsmacked, why would he do this for her? The only obvious conclusion that she could come to was.. that he loved her. A heavy blush descended upon Cecilia's face. But the real reason was that Kai wanted to leave her something to remember him by, she was one of the first people to help him in IS Academy, and he was yet to return the favour.

He placed it around her neck, it really went well with her blue dress and eyes. They walked back out into the street and checked the time, it was only 3pm, they had plenty of time.

"Hey, do you mind if I borrow your Blue Tears? Well, I'd like to borrow the ear ring" he asked looking at the small blue jewellery-looking decoration on her ear.

"W..Why? I'd rather have a valid reason to hand over my IS" she said crossing her arms.

"Well, if you'd rather skip out on a gift.." He began, but was cut off by Cecilia forcing the ear ring in his direction, she'd do anything for a gift, especially from Kai.

"Ok cool, I'll be 2 minutes, stay right here ok?"

Cecilia did what she was instructed, he didn't take long to return with her IS and a small box with her name on the tag in amazing hand writing.

"Here, this is for you, but you're only to open it if I win today's fight, ok?" he smiled.

"Another gift? That confirms it, he _does_ love me!" She thought to herself triumphantly.

"Ok, you've got a deal" she smiled, placing the small box in her bag.

The two set off back towards the IS Academy, they walked along the path by the sea front, couples were walking along the beach and some walking their dogs, even thought the sun was set to go down, the warmth still remained.

"Kai sweetie, although I am in love with this scarf, it's a tad too hot to be wearing it, do you mind holding my bag while I remove it?" she asked holding out the small purse-like handbag to Kai.

Before he could take it, someone on a bike sped between them both and snatched her bag, leaving them both in shock.

"M..My bag, Kai's present, Kai he took my bag!" she exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes.

But Kai was already on it, Double Edge was already on show, although they were on strict rules not to use their IS's out of a controlled environment, Kai would never catch up to a bike. Crowds were gathering as Kai levitated upwards to identify his target. When he was acquired, his thrusters ignited as he powered onwards, taking mere seconds to catch up to the biker. Kai formed his sword and threw it ahead of his target, causing him to fall off his bike and on to his ass. He landed in front of him to extract the sword from the ground and recover Cecilia's stolen property.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked pointing his sword at the thief.

"D..d..dude, please let me live, I just wanted the money, here take it back" he said quivering, holding out the bag.

As Kai bent down to recover the bag, he didn't realise the police had already arrived on the scene.

"IS Pilot, please disengage your unit and get down on your knees with your hands in the air" one shouted from a megaphone.

"Really? I stop a thief and you're pointing your guns at me?" He shouted looking around, we was completely surrounded.

"We'll be taking him into custody, please disengage" the officer shouted with the megaphone once more.

Kai didn't want to recall his IS, and he sure as hell didn't want to go into custody. He spotted Cecilia running towards him along the path, and thought of a plan that'd probably get him in a lot more trouble than he was in now. He jumped over the surrounding police men, activated his thrusters and sped towards Cecilia, picking her up with precision, he started flying back to the Academy.

"K..Kai what's going on?" she exclaimed.

"Nothing major, here I've got your bag" he stopped in the air to give it to her, they were quite a distance from the ground.

"Thank you, but did you have to get involved with the police?" she asked cross at him.

"Hey, I'm carrying you like you wanted, just be happy I'm not going to drop you" he joked, trying to get her mind off of the subject.

As they flew back to the Academy, they could hear the noise of the crowds coming from the arena, the time had come to fight for number 1. He landed by the exit of the arena to drop Cecilia off with the bags. After a quick good luck from her, he flew to the Centre. Looking around Laura was nowhere to be found, that changed when multiple projectiles came flying at him from the sky.

Dodging left and right, the projectiles left large holes in the ground, proving that whatever it was, they were extremely powerful. He saw a black IS headed for him at quite a speed, using his IS's zooming capabilities, he saw it was Laura charging at him with her pink sabre-like weapons drawn, he deployed his swords and charged at her, deflecting her attack and sending her down to the arena.

"Not bad, I thought you would've cracked under pressure" Laura laughed.

"Eh, even though I'm nervous, I'll never back down from a challenge" Kai smirked.

"Well, are you ready to do this?" she asked.

"Let's go" Kai charged at her, the crowd going mental.

After swinging at her, he was sure he'd hit a critical strike, but she disappeared before his very eyes. She was quick, and strong, a deadly combination.

"Is that all? Well, my turn"

She sent forth 4 wire like weapons with sharp daggers on the tips, Kai flew up into the sky trying to avoid getting caught, he managed to cut 2 of the wires, but didn't notice the other 2 creep up behind him, they constricted his arms and brought him flying back towards the arena, letting him go as he slammed into the ground.

"That fucking hurt, now that's powerful" he thought to himself getting up.

"If it's too much already, we can stop" Laura joked, being out of the IS for so long left her longing for a fight, he could see she was enjoying herself.

"It's not over till I say it's over" Kai smiled, changing his IS to burst mode. The crowd were going crazy.

"Fancy tricks won't get you anywhere, remember, I said I can beat you no matter what you choose" she replied.

Kai charged her with his Lance, picking up tremendous speed, but as he was about to make contact, she lifted her hand and he stopped in his tracks completely immobilized.

"Maybe you need a lesson on my IS? This is an AIC, or an Active Inertia Canceller, it stops any and all attacks directed at me that I focus on" Laura explained to Kai.

"And now, you get to meet Purizushi" she smiled, as the large shoulder mounted cannon pointed directly at Kai's face.

"Well.. fuck" he thought as he stared down the barrel of the large cannon.

He saw as the inside of the barrel slowly light up as the cannon's shot was readied to be released, he closed his eyes as he was launched across the arena, not slowing down until he hit the wall at the far end of the arena. A large casing flew out of the side of the Purizushi as it reloaded.

Double Edge's shields flew straight down, leaving him no more that 10% left, he could feel the energy leaving his body, that was one hell of an attack, how could he fight something that stopped all attacks?

"She can stop anything I throw at her, her focus is always on me, so she can stop anything, unless.." it finally clicked, he knew what he had to do.

Slowly getting up, his vision was slightly blurry from recovering from her attack, he shook it off as she was advancing towards him fairly quickly, her pink beam sabres were drawn, she intended for this attack to be the final blow.

"I must admit, this had been fun, it's been way too long since I've had a fight like this, and I'm going to thank you, and say sorry, as this fight is over" she finished, lunging at him.

He grabbed her wrist before it made contact, he could feel the heat from the sabre. Down on one knee he was struggling to stop her attack as his grip was slipping, then he saw it, something shiny on the floor across the arena, it was the shell from her cannon, if only he could reach it. Using his last ounce of strength, he shot up and barged Laura to the ground, using the opportunity given to him he flew over the shell.

"What do you expect to do with an empty casing?" she asked getting up.

"You'll find out" he smiled, looking up to the sky.

He activated his thrusters and flew straight up leaving Laura down in the arena, not going up too far, he placed the shell on the end of his Revolver, aimed it directly at Laura and fired, it went flying at her at tremendous speed. The heat from the travel speed caused it to melt into a large, hot chuck of metal, easily capable of melting though an IS's armour, she smirked as she knew the AIC could easily stop his attack. Holding up her hand she stopped the chunk of metal from making contact, but what she failed to realise was that Kai was directly behind the projectile. Holding the lance with both hands, he flew straight into her, as she didn't have enough time to shift her focus as he slammed it right into her chest.

Without breaking contact, he pushed her all the way to the other side of the arena, she activated her thrusters to try and slow him down, but It was too late as she made contact with the wall. They both fell to the floor exhausted, both of them were near enough out of shield, it was a case of the next hit wins.

Laura looked up and saw a window of opportunity, activating her sabre once more to end the fight, she lunged, but Kai already anticipated her move, jumping back he grabbed her hand and deployed his revolver, firing one round into her chest. The crowd was silent, they couldn't tell what was happening, but when they saw Laura's IS disappear, they were speechless, how someone who joined the Academy not that long ago had worked his way though the Elite to become the best fighter in the school was amazing. Kai recalled his IS and helped Laura up, the Arena was still silent.

"Thank you Kai, this had been the best time of my life" she smiled.

The crowd once more broke into applause, chanting his name, a large projection of Kai's face and IS appeared over the arena, stating that he was now the number 1 Elite in the school. He felt overwhelmed, his body ached and was exhausted but he couldn't help but smile and wave.

Kai and Laura left the arena and met with the others in the locker room, all of them shook his hand and hugged him, countlessly congratulating him.

"You know there's going to be a party right?" Cecilia said hugging Kai.

"Oui, make sure you get clean, you're kind of smelly" Charlotte laughed.

Kai and Laura left to go back to their room, Kai's body hurt all over but Laura was exhausted, it had been so long that she'd piloted her IS in battle that it really took it out of her.

"Are you ok Laura? You look a tired" he asked giving her a nudge.

"Uh yeah, I'm just a little bit tired I'll be fine" She finished yawning.

"So, do you want to use the bathroom first?" he asked as they walked into their room, his answer was given to him when Laura collapsed on his bed and began snoring.

He layed in the bath letting the warm water relax his body once more, it gave him time to think about his situation, he was number 1 now, but that only meant that he'd be leaving to go to Future Genetics sooner, he promised himself he'd take them down even if it killed him, but still.. he wanted to stay and live with everyone else.

He finally climbed out and got dried in the bathroom, when there was a knock at the door, quickly putting on some boxer shorts, he opened the door to Cecilia who had his bag with his newly purchased suit.

"Congratulations on the fight Kai dear, I have yo-" she was cut off when she realised what he was wearing.

"Oh sweet my suit, thanks Cecilia" he smiled taking the bag off of the stunned blonde.

"Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost!" he smiled.

"N...no, it's not that... I've got.. to go.." she managed, slowly walking to her room.

Kai wondered what had gotten into her, shrugging it off, he went to wake Laura up as she too needed to get ready for the party.

"Hey lazy ass, get up c'mon" he poked her.

"10 more minutes" she mumbled under the covers.

"No, get up, you've got a bath waiting for you"

He got no reply, if he wanted things to happen, he'd have to do it himself, with a sigh he pulled the covers off of her and lifted her up, he'd seen her naked many times to the point where he was used to it, so putting her in the bath was no problem, it was just the 'undressing' part he was uncomfortable with.

Putting her down in the bathroom, he quickly undressed her, swearing quietly to himself, then he finally got to it.. the underwear. After a big sigh, he unhooked her bra, her bust wasn't the biggest, but that didn't deter Kai, he thought she was beautiful regardless. Putting her on his lap, with his eyes closed, he quickly took of her panties, but where his eyes were closed, he didn't see the smirk on Laura's face.

"YOU ACTUALLY DID IT" she laughed.

"WHAT?!" an angry Kai stood up dropping Laura on the floor, who was laughing uncontrollably

"I wanted to see if you'd do it, consider it a little revenge for beating me today, ok I'll get in, you can go now" she said wiping a tear from her eye.

"I'll never forgive you for this" he said calmly walking out.

After a short session of profusely swearing into his pillow, Kai got dressed in his newly acquired suit, he even had to admit, he looked decent in it. Laura walked out of the bathroom naked, like usual.

"Oh, someone looks nice" she said, surprising him by jumping on his back.

"Can you get off? You're going to get me wet" he said grabbing her and putting her down on his bed.

"Are you still mad at me?" she asked giving him the puppy eyes.

"No.. I've just got things on my mind, that's all" he replied, straightening his tie.

Laura got dried and dressed, she wore a knee-high dress with a small black cardigan. Even Kai couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Checking the time, Laura assured him that the party would be ready, so they set off down to the cafeteria.

"What about the others?" he asked closing the door.

"They're probably there already" Laura replied looking out of the hallway window out towards the mainland.

"You know... You look beautiful" he smiled.

"You don't look too bad yourself" a blushing Laura replied.

Kai took her hand as they walked down to the cafeteria where the party was being held, he took a deep breath as he opened the door. He was sprayed with party poppers from all directions, the sound of clapping and cheering filled the room. Looking around he could see the rest of the Elite, they all looked amazing, going all out with their hair and dresses, even Chifuyu was wearing a long black dress that showed off her slender tone quite well.

"Well Kai, I didn't think you'd be anything special, but here we are, congratulations" she said to him, holding out a hand.

"Thanks Miss Orimura, I never thought I'd be in this position" he replied shaking her hand.

Walking over to Cecilia, he inspected her other ear and smiled when he noticed what she was wearing.

"I see you're wearing it" he smiled.

"Oh yes, I love it, really" she beamed.

"What did you get her Kai?" Lin asked walking over.

Cecilia moved the hair from her ear and displayed his gift, it was an exact replica of her blue tears in standby mode, but made completely of sapphire.

"I thought it looked a little strange with just one, I'm glad you like it" he said while getting a large hug from Cecilia, but shouted at by Lin.

The rest of the Elite once again congratulated him, and countless other students wanted his autograph, pictures, and for Kai to dance with them. The party went on as people enjoyed the food the Academy cooks made, some danced to the music or some just conversed with their friends. Kai however, sat to the side for most of the party, he was happy all of this had happened, but he felt like it was a waste as he'd be leaving soon. He sighed as he stood up.

"I want some fresh air" he thought to himself walking out and heading to the roof.

Half an hour passed when the Elite decided they want to take a photo together, but couldn't find Kai, Laura told them to wait as she went looking for him. After looking around the school, the last place she had to check was the roof. Quietly opening the door, she found him leaning on the metal bars that surrounded the edge of the room.

"What are you doing up here? Everyone wants a photo with the man of the hour" she said walking over.

"They can get one later, I just need some alone time" he replied quietly.

"Is it about Houki? I saw you looking at her down there"

"We both know she hates me because of the break up"

"Why did you break up? I thought you two were pretty good together" she asked, now stood next to him.

"I can't leave any emotional ties, I can't just leave you all with nothing" he sighed, leaving Laura intrigued.

"Tomorrow, I'll be leaving, I'm going to do it Laura, I'm going to Future Genetics and I'm going to kill the president, and shut their operation down, and I probably won't be coming back" he said turning to her, the moonlight lit her hair up beautifully.

"W..what? No you can't leave, we need you here Kai, _I_ need you here" she said taking hold his arm.

"I'm sorry, but my mind has been made, I've got to do this. Here, I was going to give this to you at the end of the night, but you're here now, so.." he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver dog tag, it was the one with his name and details on, completely restored.

"Kai this.." she started, tears forming in her eyes.

"I don't want you to forget me, so you should keep this" he smiled, wiping away the tear that dripped down her cheek.

She couldn't take it anymore, she clenched the tag and jumped at Kai, kissing him. She'd kissed him many other times, but they were just for fun, this time she meant it, all of the feelings she held inside came pouring out.

"I love you, Kai" she whispered as she pulled away.

"I love you too" he smiled, moving a bit of hair that had fallen over her face.

His conciousness was screaming at him, everything he just said about wanting to leave no emotional ties became pointless, all for her.

"I guess we should go back to the party?" he smiled.

* * *

"No, not yet" she smiled once again kissing passionately.

She took his hand and led him back to their room, as soon as the door clicked shut she slid her dress off, revealing her small, yet curvy body. Kai followed by example and started undressing, it wasn't long before they were both in their underwear.

Kai walked up to Laura and once again kissed her, both of their tongues fighting for dominance, he slid his hands down her back and down to her ass, she made a small moan when he squeezed. He picked her up and layed her down on the bed, slipping off her bra he kissed down her neck and down to her breasts, he could feel her heart beating furiously as he groped her with one hand and teased her nipple with his tongue, she could feel the stiffness in his boxers when it rubbed against her leg.

Removing one hand from her breast, he slowly teased her by tracing a small pattern on the inside of her thigh, eventually moving her panties to the side to rub her flower, she was already soaked making it easier for Kai to insert his finger, her loud moans filled the room.

As he picked up the pace with his finger, he got rougher with his mouth, biting and pulling her nipple to tease, she couldn't take it, she needed him inside of her, but that was a reward she'd have to wait for. Removing his finger, his hands was covered in her wetness, her face red and panting loudly, he kissed down her belly towards her sex, where he slowly removed the last of her underwear, holding her in position, he went to work on her downstairs, licking, biting and flicking with his tongue, she writhed in pleasure as an orgasm took control of her, leaving her body limp.

"K..Kai, please, put.. put it in" she managed between breaths.

Pulling off his boxers revealed his manhood, which looked a lot larger than it felt to Laura. Very gently he pushed the tip inside of her, she was moaning uncontrollably as he inserted the rest. She pulled him close, he could feel her body quivering from the pleasure. She was tight, he could feel the walls of her insides grip onto his member like a vice, making it hard to move, but more pleasurable when he did.

Picking up the pace, he could feel her nails digging into his back and scratching the skin, he'd never been one for things like that but he had to admit, he liked it. Feeling more comfortable with being inside her and pumping at a steady rate, he lifted one of her legs and twisted her to the side, making access to her entrance a lot easier. He could feel her juices flowing down her legs and onto him, her moans simply making him harder. She screamed his name as her second orgasm rippled through her body.

She had enough of being the submissive, she removed his member from inside her and spun him over on his back, with a smile she took hold of his throbbing erection and began jerking, he was close to orgasm, and gritted his teeth as his seed flew out over her hand and face. Looking up he saw how astonished she was, inspecting the white-like substance she put some in her mouth, her cheeks turned red as she moaned with enjoyment.

Suddenly she began licking away at his manhood, cleaning up any seed that remained, after confirming that there was none left, she inserted his member into her mouth, taking as much as she could before sucking fairly hard, letting her tongue run over the tip and down the shaft while it remained in her mouth. Kai couldn't take it any more, placing his hand on the silver haired girls head, he slowly pushing his length further into her mouth.

Laura resisted and pulled it out, glaring at him. It quickly turned to a devilish smile as she squeezed him at the base, causing him to grit his teeth once more as she spun her tongue around the tip, and slowly inserted it back into her mouth. Her loins burned for more action, so pulling it out of her mouth with one last forceful suck, she climbed on top of him and rubbed the tip on her lips, teasing herself until she couldn't handle it anymore. She slowly sat down on his length, taking every last inch. She began bouncing on his lap, both of them moving in sync.

She leaned down to kiss him while her hips remained in motion, his hands cupped one of her breasts as the other grabbed hold of her ass, squeezing at the intensity of which they were kissing. Kai could feel his streak coming to an end, he took over as his thrusts became deeper and harder, until finally, he pulled out as his seed erupted over Laura and himself.

Laura collapsed onto his chest, both of their bodies covered in sweat and out of breath. He could feel the juices still flowing from her as she rested.

"Kai.. that was perfect" she nuzzled into his chest.

He didn't reply, he smiled and stared at the ceiling stroking her hair.

"They're probably expecting us back downstairs" she said quietly.

"Yeah, but I think we should shower before we head back" he sniggered.

They quickly showered together and got dressed, a little scruffier than they should've but they were in a rush.

* * *

They entered back into the cafeteria, hand in hand to see the party was still in full swing.

"Where have you two been? We've been dying to take a photo!" Charlotte said dragging them over.

Standing in a line, the Elite took a photo together will a full 6 man team. But after everyone saw Kai taking a photo with them, they all clambered to get a photo with him. He spent the night taking photo's with a seemingly endless line of girls.

"Well, I think I should call it a day, I have a pretty busy day ahead of me, I'll see you all tomorrow" Kai finally cracked, he just wanted some rest, but when Chifuyu heard what he said, she knew instantly what he meant.

Following close behind when he left the cafeteria, she waited till they were a decent distance away and alone before she asked him.

"Kai, look I know you've got your heart set on this, but look how happy everyone is with you around, why would you want to hurt them? This is coming from a teacher, and a... a friend, please, reconsider your actions" she pleaded to him, stopping him in his tracks.

"Miss Orimura, I know I said I'd do anything for you, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to go back on my promise, I'll be helping a hell of a lot more people if I do this, I can't live with everyone under constant threat because of my being here, I'm sorry" he smiled and walked over to her, and he did the unimaginable.

Slipping his hands around her waist, he pulled her in for a hug, they were roughly the same height so it was comfortable for him, for a second she didn't know what to do, hit him away? No, she put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, it reminded her once more of her brother, they way he'd hug her whenever she was feeling down, a small tear rolled down her cheek. Pulling away he smiled and wiped away her tears.

"C'mon now, that's not the Chifuyu I know, smile, for me" he finished, walking away leaving her an emotional wreck.

Kai set his head down on his pillow, he thought back to the party, about how unhappy Houki looked, he couldn't leave things like that, it wasn't fair. Pulling a piece of paper from his desk, he began to write.

The light poked through the blinds, straight across Kai's closed eyes. He tried desperately to go back to sleep but to no avail, he needed to get up anyway. Quietly he slipped on his clothes, looking at the clock it was only 5am, the prefect time to leave unnoticed. But still, one side of him just wanted to stay, he was happy here, why destroy it for himself? But the other wanted to end them, to stop all the experiments, and see if his mother was real.

"So, you're really going?" a small voice said behind him.

"Yeah"

"Why?"

"You know why, I'm sorry"

"Kai, please wait" Laura ran to him and hugged him from behind, Kai noticed his tag in her hand.

"It's obvious nothing will change your mind, so I want to help"

"You can't come with me, I can't have you in danger" he replied.

"Look at my eye Kai, look at it! He did this to me, I want revenge for the years of bullying" he started hitting his chest, trying to change his mind.

"I'm sorry" he repeated.

"At least... at least take this" she said pulling away and going to her bed-side drawer, she pulled out a large casing, a large Bowie knife rested inside.

"This was the weapon I was going to use to kill him, when I got the chance, but since you're going, promise me you'll use this" she asked handing it too him, Kai reached out and gripped the handle, also wrapping his hand around Laura's.

"I promise, that he'll pay for everything he's done to everyone, including you" he smiled, for the last time they hugged, tighter than ever, and shared their final kiss. He clipped the Bowie knife to his leg, and covered it with his trousers.

Before Kai left, he remembered what he wrote last night, reaching into his back pocket he handed the small envelope to Laura.

"If you can get her alone, please give this to Houki" he asked quietly, she nodded in recognition and watched as he left, she couldn't hold back as the signs of weakness rolled down her cheeks.

Kai walked to the edge of the Academy, looking back and taking a deep breath, he activated his IS and flew away. He knew exactly where he was headed, when he broke out he remembered there was a large lake next to hidden metal doors, that'd be his way in. He flew quickly over the empty streets, luckily no one was really up to see him, if the police recognized his IS it'd have caused more trouble. It didn't take long to reach the forest, he instantly recognized the lake.

"Sir, we have a confirmed data reading of 117 in the vicinity, what's out next move?" a soldier ran in and told the president.

"Do not threat, he will come to us" he replied staring out of the window at the new morning.

Kai stared into the lake, it was extremely clear, you could see right to the bottom, then it started shaking, the fish swam franticly as 2 hidden metal doors slowly opened in the cliff face. Kai looked in, nothing but darkness, the small amount of light the sun was producing was not enough to light it. He silently and cautiously stepped inside, the sound of his shoes on the metal vibrated deep within, he walked for what seemed like forever, then he saw a light in the distant, it got closer and closer, lighting up the long hallway of which he was walking.

Now his path was illuminated, he began running, the end seemed miles away, and there was enough room for him to deploy Double Edge, but not enough room for activate his thrusters without damaging them. When the door finally came within range, he felt the floor.. shaking, turning around multiple soldiers chased him with riot shields up. Turning to run, he saw the same thing, soldiers pouring out of the ending door. Leaving him with no choice, he tried to deploy his IS, but one of the soldiers shouted.

"He's doing it, throw EMP grenades now, stun him" and suddenly, hundreds of small devices fell at his feet, his IS wasn't responding, they had blocked him from deploying, he fell to his knees in defeat, as he knew he couldn't do anything, closing his eyes he felt the boots getting nearer and nearer, until he felt a hard hit on the back of his head, knocking him out.

He came too face to face with the president, his eyes widened as his enemy stood in front of him with that stupid smile. He threw a punch but was met with a glass layer between them, looking around he saw he was in a glass dome with a metal floor. The president laughed and began talking.

"Oh my dear boy, for a moment I didn't think you'd actually come, you recognize this place don't you?" he smiled.

Kai took a moment to survey his surroundings, then it hit him, this is where they performed the most messed up experiments, trying to morph people together, trying to bring life to corpses, 9 times out of 10, they'd end up with a room full of failed experiments.

"That's right, you remember, and now, you're going to be part of that little experiment, you see, before you killed project Scarlett, we saw through her eye camera that little split personality of yours, and it's substantially stronger than you, so we're going to take it from you, you might survive, you might not.. begin the process" he finished explaining.

The floor beneath Kai started glowing, electricity started flowing through the machine and up through his body. He leaned against the glass trying to take the pain, his brain and body felt like it was being split in two. He looked over at a scientist who was turning a dial, increasing the voltage slowly, he could feel it effecting his body. Kai collapsed to the electrified floor, his writhed in agony, the pain was worse than Scarlett's electricity whip, much, much worse.

Then it ended, his body and mind hurt more than any pain he could ever imagine, he looked around as his vision was fading, his last thing he saw was what looked like another him in a separate glass container.

It was.. cold, there was no heat, no happiness, only hate and sadness. Kai slowly opened his eyes, he was laying on a metal floor, stained with rust and blood. He tried moving, his body refused to cooperate with what he wanted, only allowing him to turn over, he instantly recognized where he was, they'd dumped him in the training arena, a steel box with spectator windows up high. He grunted in agony as he forced himself to sit up against the wall.

"Ah, so you did survive, welcome back" The presidents voice echoed.

"I think you'll be happy to hear, our little experiment was a success, but we've decided against calling him Kai, instead we've named your twin Hunter, because after he's finished toying with you, he'll be leaving to head towards your precious Academy to hunt down every last one of your friends" the president laughed.

Two giant metal doors opened at the other end of the arena, and Hunter walked in, the resemblance was uncanny, he looked exactly the same, apart from the blood red eyes. Kai couldn't believe what they'd done, Hunter walked to the centre of the arena and awaited instruction.

"Hunter my boy, please deploy your IS and dispose of this trash" the president spoke into the microphone like you would talk to a child.

"Must.. dispose... trash.. Kai, project 117" he spoke like a clone, he instantly deployed his IS, it was exactly like Kai's, except the dark red tint, and the angled thrusters, exactly the same as the one that killed Scarlett. Hunter deployed his weapon, the scythe of which he used to fight Scarlett and advanced towards Kai.

"Fuck, fuck fuck fuck" he thought to himself as Hunter slowly closed the gap.

"I can't fall to this clone, I refuse too, but.. my body.. my IS" he looked Hunter in the eye, he was now close enough for a lethal strike, he raised his scythe.

As he brought it down, Kai forced himself out of the way, looking back he saw the scythe cut through the steel like a hot knife through butter. Feeling the energy come back to his body, he stood up, his legs wobbling like crazy.

"Hunter, Hunter listen to me, remember what you told me, you're, no _OUR_ anger is for them, use it to kill them" Kai pleaded.

"N..No, no, my anger.. is at 117, must kill 117" he replied shaking his head.

He advanced towards Kai once more, a lot faster this time and swung sidewards, Kai jumped back barely dodging the attack. He needed to defend himself, he wasn't getting through to him. He partially deployed his IS's right arm and sword, as it was all he could do with the energy he had.

"Remember, you killed Scarlett to save me, to save everyone at IS Academy, LISTEN TO ME!" He shouted at Hunter.

Hunter stopped in his tracks, his hand on his head.

"N..n..no.. I.. I remember.. I..I'm K..k..k" he managed.

"Yes, you're me, and together we can take down Future Genetics together" Kai shouted, happy he was finally getting to him.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS, HUNTER, KILL PROJECT 117 AND GET THIS DONE AND OVER WITH" the presidents voice still had authority over Kai's, reverting Hunter back into his murderous state.

He relentlessly swung his Scythe at Kai, he was trying his hardest to defend himself, but a few hits got to him, cutting his jacket leaving deep wounds that bled profusely.

"F..fuck" Kai said to himself after inspecting the wound on his left arm, it was deep.

"LISTEN TO ME, LISTEN TO MY VOICE HUNTER, WE ARE THE SAME, IF YOU KILL ME YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN ANY OTHER MURDERER, _WE_ ARE BETTER THAN THEM, YOU'VE GOT TO LISTEN TO ME" Kai attempting to get though to him one more time.

This time Hunter fell to one knee, dropping his weapon to hold his head.

"K..Kai? IS.. Academy, I.. I protected them.. I'm.. not..a.. murderer" Hunter managed, finally coming back.

"KILL. HIM" the president shouted once more. Hunter looked at Kai, a look of sincerity in his eyes.

Kai knew what he had to do, he didn't want to, but instincts took over as he charged at Hunter, his IS forming around him as he ran, holding his sword out he stabbed Hunter through the stomach, his sword cutting through the armour. But he didn't stop there, he carried on running until he made contact with the wall, and proceeded to force the sword through Hunter, until it was pushed all the way though him and the hilt was touching his armour.

Stepping back, Kai breathed deeply in shock, he can't believe he done it, he killed... himself. Himself and his IS was covered in Hunters blood, his focus shifted upwards to the president and the scientists, they we're in shock, how did he beat their creation? They all panicked as he flew up to the viewing deck and ripped the glass off, he didn't care for the scientists, he wanted the president. Leaving Hunter in the arena pinned to the wall, he was sure he'd die like that, he began his rampage in Future Genetics' labs to find the president.

He knew the halls like the back of his hand, he'd been down them all enough. He quickly and nimbly flew through the corridors headed for the presidents room. He stopped outside the door, this was it, everything he had worked for had led him to this moment. He kicked in the door to see the president relaxed on his chair.

"This is where it ends" Kai announced walking in deploying his last sword.

"But for who? It seems you've fallen right into my hands" the president laughed.

Suddenly, thick metal shutters clamped down around the room, like a nuclear bunker.

"You see, the self destruct of this lab is wired to my heart, if it stops beating, everything inside gets wiped to ashes, nothing remains apart from the smeared souls of the damned" he spat.

"You think a small explosion will stop me from killing you? I didn't plan on leaving this place alive" Kai shouted back.

"Well then project K.A.I, prove your worth, are you a success? Or another fucking failure" the president asked standing up.

Something under the presidents skin started moving, he knocked his desk to one side as he slammed his hands on the ground, screaming in agony his flesh started ripping, revealing a metallic armour-like skin. When the process was complete, nothing flesh remained other than his head.

"THIS IS WHAT THE FUTURE IS BOY, YOU'RE OLD NEWS, AND NOW YOU DIE" He shouted in a robotic voice.

The president's arms started shape shifting, forming two long blades as arms, and charged Kai with incredible speed. He deflected one hit but took the full force of the other, launching him back into the steel plated wall. The president didn't wait up to attack again, Kai jumped up and barged him over, slamming his sword into the ground in an attempt to get some damage in, but he rolled out the way and swept his legs to trip Kai up.

"You see, you're old news" The president said placing a large metallic foot on Kai's chest, and began putting pressure on it, causing Double Edge's armour to start cracking.

Kai felt it, his life started flashing before him, but there was nothing.. blackness.. he wasn't to die here, and he was going to make sure of it. Dropping his sword, he focused his last bit of IS's energy in his arms, everything disappeared to transfer it's energy. Grabbing the presidents foot, he pushed him back causing him to stumble, he took this opportunity to pick his sword up and stab him.

But as he lunged, he felt a horrific pain coming from arm, looking over to his left, he saw the president had countered his attack and his left arm was mortally wounded. Falling to the floor, Kai could feel the blood exiting his body, leaving him weak.

"AND NOW, I WIN BOY, I _ALWAYS_ WIN" the president laughed as he went face to face with Kai.

He felt around for his sword with his good arm, but found something better, his hand brushed the knife Laura gave him, he almost forgot his promise, he gripped the handle as this would be it, do or die, there was no try again. He jumped up pulling the knife, landing the hit he jammed it into the top of the presidents head, causing him to scream in agony, but he didn't die.

"Ugh.. you think... a small.. knife can end me? I AM INFINITE, I. AM. ETERNAL" he screamed.

"Well, I'm an Elite" Kai smirked as he jumped and and with both hands ignoring the pain in he arm, took the knife handle and ripped the blade down the president's face, blood sprayed everywhere, a blood curdling scream came from the president before he finally collapsed, creating a large pool of blood.

Kai stumbled back and rested against the wall, breathing heavily he could see his wound already starting to heal, but what's the use, he was about to be blown up.

"Detonation in.. 3 minutes, Missile strike to co-ordinates codenamed -IS Academy- Will launch in 3 minutes" an automated voice played over the speaker.

"What? No, No, NO!" Kai had realised his error, upon the detonation of Future Genetics' lab, a missile would be launched at IS Academy to tie up any lose ends.

Kai's adrenaline and anger forced him to deploy his IS, using his sword he hit the metal walls as hard and as fast as he could, but to no avail, he was stuck, and his friends were going to die because of him. The blood on his face began streaking as tears dripped down his cheeks, he'd done nothing to help, he'd made everything worse.

A loud knock came from behind him, like someone wanting to get in, and it happened again, and again, louder and harder, until a sharp point ripped through the metal and created an opening, Kai couldn't believe who stepped through.

"Hunter" he said holding up his sword.

"Kai" he replied.

"Are you here to kill me? To finish the job?" he asked, looking at his IS's armour, he could see the entrance wound of his sword.

"Well, it seems like you've done that already" he said pointing at the presidents dead body, still gushing with blood.

"Does that mean.." he started lowering his sword.

"I remember everything, but this is no time for greetings, we need to leave, together" he said walking out of the room, Kai was quick to follow.

They retraced their steps all the way back to the big metal blast doors that led out to the lake, Kai tried pulling them open, but they wouldn't budge. Hunter took one door as Kai took the other, together they pulled the heavy doors apart, forming he weapon, Hunter forced his Scythe inbetween the two doors to keep them open temporarily.

"C'mon, now you, we can both make it" Kai shouted extending a hand.

"What's the use? Why would they want me? I'm just you.." he replied, looking into the lab.

"No, don't you dare, you're coming with me" Kai screamed.

"No, my time is up, it has been an honour meeting you" Hunter smiled.

Kai jumped back into the Lab, he'd pull his doppelgänger out if he needed too. But where Hunter was substantially stronger than Kai, he picked him back up and threw him outside, the scythe finally snapped under the pressure, Kai looked on in horror and began trying to pry the door open, he could hear the detonation count down from inside. 5... 4... 3... He tried his best to force it open. 2... 1.

"NOOOO, NO, OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR" he cried as he could hear the explosions coming from inside.

He turned and slid down the doors in shock, it was strange, losing a part of yourself. He felt so empty, so alone. Looking up to the sky, he saw something bright streak across it, leaving a large vapour trail.

"The missile" his heart pounded.

He activated his thrusters as he chased after it, going as fast as he could.

"Hey, what's that in the sky?" a student asked pointing out the window.

"It looks like a shooting star!"

"In the day? Don't be stupid"

"Hey look, there's something else!"

What they saw was Kai's vapour trail as he chased after it, the school's scanners had already picked it up as a threat and also read that Kai's IS was in the vicinity. Chifuyu opened up a communications link to his IS.

"Kai, you're alive! What's going on, what is that?" She asked panicking.

"It's a missile, and it's headed for the Academy, I'm going to destroy it if I can" he replied, just reaching it.

"You can't, according to the data, that bomb's explosion is big enough to destroy the school 3 times over from that distance, you can't do this alone, I'm sending the rest of the Elite to help you" she replied.

"No, don't" he replied, he knew what he had to do.

"What? What are you going to do?" she demanded.

He smiled as a tear formed in his eye.

"Whatever it takes" and closed the communications.

He hugged the front of the rocket as he overcharged his thrusters, forcing the missile upwards into orbit, he couldn't let go otherwise it'd go back on it's own course back to the Academy.

Everyone looked out the window as they saw a large explosion coming from the sky, the shock wave shook the school like an earthquake, but stood firmly in place.

"Kai.." Chifuyu whispered to herself as the Elite came running into the head of security's office.

"Ma'am, what's happened? What was that explosion?" Cecilia asked.

"It was a missile, sent by Future Genetics to tie up any lose ends" she replied quietly.

"And Kai, where is he?" Charlotte asked, pushing in front of Cecilia.

"He.. He diverted the missile, he saved the Academy" Chifuyu smiled, but deep down she wanted to cry.

All of them covered their mouths in shock, they couldn't believe what they just heard.

"So does that mean.." Houki started.

Chifuyu simply nodded, confirming their suspicions.

Houki broke into tears while hugging Laura, while Cecilia and the others ran outside wanting to investigate, he couldn't die, he couldn't leave them like this. The smoke in the sky still remained from the explosion, they all fell to their knees, they couldn't believe he was gone, just like that.

A week had passed since Kai saved the Academy, Chifuyu had arranged a funeral that only herself and the Elite were to attend. He had a custom made stone on the mainland, just by the ocean in a little patch of grass, out of the way so no one else would find it. After the service everyone but Laura left, she stayed and sat on the bench by his stone in silence.

"It was beautiful, thank you" Voice said behind her, her heart skipped a beat, she closed her eyes.

"No, you're gone, this is just my imagination wishing you was back" a tear formed in her eye.

"Would your imagination be able to do this?" the voice said, and suddenly two hands were placed over her eyes.

She didn't move, she didn't want to, if it was just a prank, she was going to kill them, but then the hands were removed. Her eyes widened, she couldn't believe it.

"K..Kai?" she said in a small voice.

"Yeah, I'm still here, glad to still you're wearing my tag" he smiled back.

"Bu..the..missile and.." she couldn't get a word out, she couldn't come to grips with the fact that he was still alive.

"Shh, don't speak, only listen" he placed a finger gently on her lips.

"The president is dead, there is no more Future Genetics, but I'm sad to say I've got to leave, I need to find another purpose in life as it feels like my life has run it's course here, I'll be back some day, ok? Please don't forget about me, and try not to tell the others too soon, ok?" he smiled.

She couldn't do anything but nod, tears of happiness were forming in her eyes as he stood up in front of her. He bent down and kissed her one last time before walking off back into the forest his hands in his pockets.

"I won't forget you" Laura smiled.

She pulled out Kai's note to Houki, she couldn't work up the courage to give it to her over the past week, but she knew she needed to hear what he had to say, especially after she was going to tell them he was alive.

"**Dear Houki,**

**First off I'd like to apologise for causing you such heartache, please let me explain. **

**It wasn't my intention to hurt you, it was far from it, you were my first love and nothing will change that, but I couldn't leave you with an empty love for me when I'm gone, I'm sure someone out there can fill your heart with love so much more than I ever could. So please, if you could find it deep in your heart to forgive me, I can sleep easy knowing we're still friends.**

**Secondly, please tell the others I'm sorry for leaving them as well, it has been such an amazing experience, getting to know you all, and becoming friends with you all too, if they hate me too, I understand, but I can only ask for your forgiveness.**

**I promise I'll be back soon, don't forget about me.**

**-Kai" **


	12. Infinite Stratos Elite:2 Teaser

What's up guys? Long time no speak. After finishing Infinite Stratos Elite, it's clear that the majority of you wanted a sequel, so after a decent break from writing (That and work has been busting my balls keeping me busy) I've began preparations for ISE:2. (I'm still trying to figure out a cool sequel name)

Now, you can either leave it to me to write it, or you can have a say on how things go, from the first story, I had a bunch of ideas sent to me, which helped shape the story you all liked, so if you want something in it, either a character or for something in a chapter to happen, let it be heard! (Keep in mind, Ichika can't be brought into the story).

I've decided to give you all a teaser to get the ball rolling and the hype building, here's the little description that will accommodate the story, see you all soon in the first chapter! - Josh.

"6 months has passed since Kai had gone missing after protecting IS Academy. Media coverage of the attack on the Academy has attracted a lot of strong IS Pilots, including a young boy who claims he too, can pilot an IS. The news calls for Kai's return to defend his title, but not everything is as it seems with the new students. Can Future Genetics' return be seen on the horizon?"

-New Characters.

-More Battles.

-More violence.

Stay tuned.


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